COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES RUE ......Belgium France Ireland Luxembourg United Kingdom...

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIESRUE DE LA LOI 200 • 1049 BRUSSELS

CT X/309/76-E

Orig: F

EUROPEAN CONSUMERS:

their interests, aspirations and knowledge on consumer affairs

Results and analyses of a sample survey carried outin the nine countries of the European Economic Community

Brussels(200 rue de la Loi)

May 1976

CONTENTS

Page

1INTRODUCTION

Part One

MAIN RESULTS OF THE SURVEY

I, OPINIONS AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE PUBLICIN REGARD TO RISING PRICES 7

II. BEHAVIOUR OF DISSATISFIED CONSUMERS OR USERS 201. Cheating on goods 202. Complaints about public services 253. Reactions of the dissatisfied consumer or user 29

III. "RATIONALITY" OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR 361. Evaluation of own behaviour as a purchaser 572. Protective evaluation of the behaviour of purchasers

in general 42

IV. THE FEELING OF HAVING SUFFICIENT OR INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION 49

V. ATTITUDES TO ADVERTISING 54

VI. ATTITUDES TO INFORMATION MEDIA 721. Consumers and the main information media 722. Specialized consumer information publications or press

articles 84

VII. ATTITUDES TO CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS 901. How well-known are the organizations? 912. Present membership and likelihood of joining the

membership of such an organization 945. General assessment of the effectiveness of the organizations 1004. Influence of the organizations over government policies 102

VIII. ATTITUDES TO PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTS 1041. Knowledge of product comparison tests and trust of

their results 1052. Influence of knowledge of the results of tests on buying

habits 110

Page

IX. THE CONSUMER AND PUBLIC AUTHORITIES 115

X. THE CONSUMES AND POLITICAL PARTIES 120

XI. THE CONSUMER AND THE COMMON MARKET 1271. Consumer protection; a matter of attracting increasing

interest 1272. The Common Market: a good thing 1325. Image of the Common Market in certain respects 135

Part Two

EEC AREA CONSUMER TYPOLOGY

I. METHOD OF ANALYSIS

II. RESULTS OF TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

CONCLUSIONS

ANNEXES

146

148

165

175

EUROPEAN CONSUMERS:

The i r interests, aspirations, and. knowledge on consumer a f f a i r s

INTRODUCTION

The two hundred and sixty-five million Europeans living in the ninecountries of the Community are two hundred and sixty-five million consumers.As consumers, what are their opinions and how do they behave? In orderto find out and to publish the findings, the Commission of the EuropeanCommunities arranged for a large-scale survey to be carried out in October/November 1975 among the population aged 15 years and over in all ninecountries of the Community.

About 9500 individuals, in representative national samples, werequestioned orally by interviewers from eight specialist survey organizations,by means of a questionnaire-containing about sixty questions, including thequestions for EURO-BAROMETER No. 4(1).

Consumers are not a distinct category but the whole of the population,yet far too little is known in the field of consumer science. Untilrecently governments, in their concern for power as well as prosperity,were preoccupied with indicators of growth, on the assumption that consumerswould benefit from growth, which has been measured mainly by an annual risein the national product. Producers of goods and services were intent onthe market and market research, taking the line that in a system based oncompetition efforts to keep and increase the share of the market would,by and large, suffice to prevent exploitation of customers and to give themall the protection necessary. Apart from a few exceptions, economiststook little interest in consumers; in their pursuit of value theory whichsimply assumed as a model an imagined consumer who behaved rationally theysomewhat neglected real consumers and their behaviour in day-to-day shopping.

(1) Euro-Barometer is an opinion poll conducted at six-monthly intervalssince autumn 1974 in the countries of the EEC. The results of No. 4were published "in December 1975. The exact dates of the interviews,the number of respondents in each country and all the other technicaldetails are given in the Annexes to this document, together with alist of the survey organizations concerned.

- 2-

Evidence that in the last few decades such relative indifference to

consumers has no longer prevailed is provided by the great diversity ofpublished works, for example Vance Packard, "The Hidden Persuaders", New

York, 1957; J.K. Galbraith, "The Affluent Society", Boston, 1958; "The

New Industrial State", Boston, 196? and 1971; George Katona, "The Powerful

Consumer", New York, 1960; Jean Meynaud, "Le consommateur et le pouvoir",

Lausanne, 1964, etc. Another prominent name is that of the American

lawyer Ralph Nader, whose vigorous and persistent campaigning over the last

twelve years or so has been of major importance in the United States in

offsetting the imbalance of power (1).

However, as Jean Meynaud stated in his above-mentioned book, "serious

gaps remain and vast areas of uncertainty await investigation".

It has repeatedly been said that the consumer has supreme power and

the act of purchase has often been compared to a kind of daily ballot which

can alter the relative positions of the various business concerns. This

may be so, but can anyone refute Galbraith's assertion that in the relationship

between producers and consumers the balance of power is often held by the

producer, in that the consumer's needs are, in fact, "suggested" to him?

Voting means making a choice. For that purpose it is necessary to have

information. A great deal remains to be done in informing citizens and

everything, or almost everything, in informing consumers» It is a long

way from formal democracy as written into constitutions to the kind ofdemocracy experienced by citizens. There may be an even greater distance

between what has misleadingly been called "the consumer society" and society

in which the requirements of consumers are met .

(1) An excellent review of work in this field, although with shortcomings asregards bibliography in the French language, is given by Fölke Ôlanderand Hakan Lindhoff in their article "Consumer action research; A reviewof the consumerism literature and suggestions for new directions inresearch", Social Science Information, 1975, XIV-6, pp. 14-7-184. Olanderis Professor of Economic Psychology at the School of BusinessAdministration and Economics, Aarhus (Denmark) and Lindhoff is a ResearchFellow of the Institute of Economic Research, Stockholm School ofEconomics.

(2) The main feature of "the consumer society" is a new pattern of socialrelationships differing profoundly from the traditional relationships

2 continued

within the family or the village. This new pattern is formed by aproducer-dominated system of promoting and satisfying demand thatcan be met at viable cost in a free market economy where, if fullfreedom is allowed, anything (or almost anything) is bought and sold,

- 3-

The purpose of the present survey was to lessen that gap.

This was not a comprehensive investigation of all aspects of consumptionnor an inquiry in connexion with the growing movement which has in some waystaken up the example set by the Equitable Pioneers of Rochdale - founders,in 1834, of the first consumer co-operatives - and is called "consumerism"or "consumer action", according to whether the commentator or participantapproaches the situation from the point of view of suppliers or of consumers(1),The survey had the more modest aim of contributing to the EEC programmelaunched in 1975 "for a consumer protection and information policy"(2).

In April 1975 the Consumers' Consultative Committee of the EuropeanEconomic Community was asked to give its recommendations on the scope ofthe survey and on the questionnaire.

The questions asked were concerned with:

(1) The distinction has been aptly defined by olander and Lindhoff, op.cit.,p. l48. For a brief review in the French language of the history ofAmerican "consumerism", reference may be made to the article by YvesBenoux: "Consommateur insatisfait, où est ton pouvoir?" Economie etHumanisme, 210, March/April 1973, pp. 31-58.

(2) Official Journal of the European Communities, 25 April 1975. Thispreliminary programme recognizes five rights of the consumer in theEEC:

- the right to protection of health and safety;- the right to protection of economic interests;- the right of redress;- the right to advice and guidance;- the right of representation.

- 4-

a. assessment by individuals of their household's present financialsituation, in relation to inflation, and how people envisageadjusting their behaviour;

b. behaviour if cheated when buying goods or as a user of a publicservice;

c. rationality of consumer behaviour in normal shopping, for examplefor food, and, in more general terms, opinions about the way inwhich other consumers do their shopping,

d. feeling of having sufficient or insufficient information;

e. opinions on advertising;

f. exposure to guidance in specialized consumer information or otherpublications;

g. knowledge of consumer protection organizations, attitude to themand readiness to become a member;

h. knowledge of product comparison tests and attitude to them;

i. general attitude to some means of consumer information and defencewhich have been employed;

j. assessment of political parties as to consumer protection;

k. attitudes to the Common Market and image of the Common Market.

* *

This report is in two parts:

- Part One comprises 11 chapters giving the main results for eachtopic taken up.

- Part Two attempts to explain the results obtained, by means ofanalysis in greater depth and, in particular, an analysis todifferentiate between types of consumer (typological study).

5 -

Readers who wish to see the explanations and conclusions first canbegin by turning TO Part Two and then take note of Part One(1).

(1) Analysis of the data was performed under the direction of Hélène Riffault,(Paris), who acted as international co-ordinator of the research byBruno Roche and Claude Quercy. Expert; assistance was given byJean-Michel Agostini, former member of the Council of the EuropeanSociety for Opinion Surveys and Market Research (ESOMAR). Jacques-ReneRabier, Adviser to the Commission of the European Communities, wasresponsible for overall direction of the research and preparation ofthis report.

The Commission accepts no responsibility in connexion with the data,analyses, hypotheses and conclusions contained in this report.

- 6-

Part One

MAIN RESULTS

OF THE SURVEY

- 7 -

OPINIONS AND BEHAVIOUR OF THE PUBLICIN REGARD TO RISING PRICES

Recent opinion polls have shown rising prices to be the problem causingmost concern to the greatest numbers of people at present, far outweighinganxiety about unemployment(1). It was therefore of interest to obtain amore precise measurement of the result of this trend which affects everyone'spocket and, especially, to try to see what changes in behaviour may resultfrom the rise in prices:

"Comparing your present financial situation (or that of yourfamily) with your situation this time last year, would yousay that in your particular case prices have risen fasterthan your income, more slowly or at more or less the samerate?"

An average of two out of three people considered that prices had risenfaster than their income. The countries where the effect of inflation wasmost strongly felt were Italy and Belgium. Denmark was the only countrywhere the bulk of the population (44%) felt that it was holding its own ornot being too badly affected by inflation.

See Table 1.

(1) See Euro-Barome ter, Nos. 1 to 4

- 8 -

Table 1

MOVEMENT IN PRICES AS COMPARED WITH INCOME

Italy

Belgium

France

Ireland

Luxembourg

United Kingdom

Netherlands

Federal republicof Germany

Denmark

(1)Community '

Prices have risen;

faster

80%

79

72

71

71

64

58

52

42

66

at more or lessthe same rate

15%

13

21

22

22

23

28

35

44

24

more slowly

2%

2

4

4

4

5

5

10

6

5

Don't know/no reply

3%

6

3

3

3

8

9

3

8

5

Total

100%

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

(1) '.Weighted mean, according to the size of the population aged 15 years andover in each of the countries.

- 9 -

There was a fairly marked difference between sectors of the populationas to noticing that there had been deviation between prices and incomes.

Doubtless because they are dealing with the problem of householdshopping every day, women were, on the whole, slightly more aware thanmen of such deviation and people in the age range from 40 to 54 years oldwere slightly more aware of it than younger or older age groups. As onemight have expected, families with the largest numbers of members of thehousehold and those with the lowest incomes were more aware than otherhouseholds of the drop in their purchasing power.

Variation according to level of income in the opinion expressed wasgreatest in France, Denmark and Ireland, but in two of those countries(France and Ireland) a much higher percentage of the population than inthe other (Denmark) felt that prices had risen faster:

Prices have risen fasterthan income:

France Ireland Denmark

(I) Low income group 80% 81% 50%(II) Lower middle income group 73 74 45(III) Upper middle income group 71 72 40(IV) High income group 64 61 31

Difference (I) - (IV) 16 20 19

See Table 2.

- 11 -How does the public propose to deal with this trend? What changes

are people prepared to make in their present behaviour, either as consumersor as workers?

"If prices continue to rise at the same rate over the next fewmonths, which of the following would you definitely, probably,probably not or definitely not decide to do?"(1)

The replies most frequently given, namely the statements which receivedthe highest percentages of "yes, definitely" and "yes, probably" answersin the Community as a whole, were:

1) Shop around for cheaper goods ......................... 82%2) For the time being, give up the idea of making any

major purchases such as: furniture, householdappliances, television, car, etc ...................... 78%

5) Go for special offers or sale goods ................... 75%

These were followed by;

4) Cut normal spending on clothes ........................ 64%5) Spend less on entertainment and outings ............... 63%6) Spend less on holidays ................................ 56%7) Prepare cheaper meals ................................. 55%8) Get together with other consumers to obtain more

information and defend your interests ................. 48%9) Draw on existing savings .............................. 44%

10) Work overtime or try to find a second job ............. 41%11) Stop trying to put aside savings ...................... .33%

The first three replies are not surprising: shopping around forcheaper goods or going for special offers or sale goods are forms ofadaptation which are not much trouble and involve scarcely any sacrifice,especially for young couples and for people in a relatively poor positionas regards self-help.

(1) See Table 5.

- 12-

The other answers give us a profile of European consumer attitudesat a time when consumption is being affected predominantly by inflationand to a lesser degree by unemployment. The consumer is trying, or willtry, above all to reduce expenditure on leisure activities (entertainmentand outings, as well as holidays), but also to cut spending on clothes andon food. However, the idea of getting together with other consumers ratedfairly high. The answers about saving are of doubtful value, because inorder to draw on savings it is necessary to possess savings; and to stopsaving it would be necessary to be in a position to try to save. Nor isthe answer about overtime or a second job particularly relevant at a timeof under-employment.

- 13-

Table 3

HOW PEOPLE EXPECT TO ADJUST

TO RISING PRICES

(Community as a whole)

Shop around for cheaper goods

For the time being, give upthe idea of making any majorpurchases such as: furniture,household appliances,television, car, etc.

Go for special offers or salegoods

Cut normal spending on clothes

Spend less on entertainmentand outings

Spend less on holidays

Prepare cheaper meals

Get together with otherconsumers to obtain moreinformation and defend yourinterests

Draw on existing savings

Work overtime or try to finda second job

Stop trying to put asidesavings

Yes,definitely

56%

48

43

31

34

29

27

22

14

19

14

Yes,probably

26%

30

32

33

29

27

28

26

30

22

19

Probablynot

8%

11

10

20

15

16

20

20

22

13

23

Definitelynot

7%

6

10

12

14

19

19

20

24

35

32

don'tknow/no reply

3%

5

5

4

8

9

6

12

10

11

12

Total

100%

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

100

- 14-

The differences from one country to another were fairly small but it

is noteworthy that a higher proportion of people in Italy than elsewhere

opted for taking action to adjust to the situation.

To make these differences clearer a value index number was worked out

for each item from the assignment to the number of answers of a coefficient

of 3 ("yes, definitely"), 2 ("yes probably"), 1 ("probably not") or

0 ("definitely not"). Hence, every score below 1.5 means that the relevant

group tended towards a negative answer(1)'.

(See Table 4).

(1) All the index numbers given in this report were calculated frompercentages to one decimal place which were supplied by the computer.

- 15-

Table 4

HOW PEOPLE EXPECT TO ADJUST

TO RISING PRICES

(As index numbers, by country)

- 16-

Differences between the replies of men and of women were for the mostpart small and seemed to arise mainly because, as already pointed out,women are more often responsible for the day-to-day management of the familybudget. Thus, women were slightly more inclined than men to "preparecheaper meals", to "cut normal spending on clothes", to "go for specialoffers or sale goods", etc.

Age had little influence, except that people in the age range from25 to 54 years tended to give positive answers rather more frequently,doubtless because these are the people most often responsible for managingthe budget. One should not read too much into the fact that the youngestmale and female groups (15-24 years) were noticeably keener than theirelders to "work overtime or try to find a second job (1).

The number of people in the household emerged as an obvious inducementto members of large families to work overtime or try to find a second job.An interesting point is that the only variable which affected readiness to"get together with other consumers" was size of the family: this may meaneither that large families are disposed towards collaboration or that theydo already take part in group action more often than do people living aloneor households without children. Indeed, both possibilities could apply.Results given later in this report show that individuals willing to becomemembers of consumer protection organizations tended to come from householdsof more than two people(2).

Income level affected most of the actions mentioned, especially spendingon clothes, food and holidays and major household purchases. Naturally,people whose income is below average would be the first to stop trying toput aside savings, to draw on their existing savings and to cut spending on

(1) This could also have been taken to include "try to find a job."(2) See page 98.

- 17-

entertainment and outings. Curiously enough, there was greater readinessto work overt une or try to find a second job among people whose income wasnear the average than among those with low or high income: the reasonsmust be that a lot of older people have low incomes and that better-offpeople do not take up these means of supplementing their income.

Table 5 shows the index numbers by number of members of the householdand by income. A particularly noteworthy feature is that these variableshad little effect on the order of priority given to the various forms ofadjustment to rising prices but produced considerable variation in theproportions of respondents favouring each adjustment.

If the crisis were to become more serious or, as the question put it,"if prices continue to rise at the same rate over the next few months",changes in consumer behaviour would probably be much greater than theconsumers themselves now imagine. But initially, at least, the largestcutbacks would be likely to fall on clothes, holidays and food.

- 18-

Table 5

HOW PEOPLE EXPECT TO ADJUSTTO RISING PRICES

ACCORDING TO SIZE OF HOUSEHOLD AND FAMILY INCOME(As index numbers, for the Community as a whole)

- 19-

Surprisingly, there was not a very clear correlation between noticinga drop in real income - i.e. considering that prices had risen faster thanpersonal income - and readiness to take action to adjust to the situation.People who judged that their real income had fallen in the last year wereonly slightly more inclined to envisage such adjustments: the mean overallscore for the eleven items from the Community as a whole was only 1.83among people who had answered that prices had risen faster than their income,whereas it was 1.67 for those who had replied that prices had risen lessslowly and 1.76 for the total sample.

This suggests that either the great majority of people are stillreluctant to start behaving in ways which would change their habitscompletely or they do not believe that prices will continue to rise atthe same rate.

- 20-

II

BEHAVIOUR OF DISSATISFIED CONSUMERS OR .USERS

Have consumers thought they were cheated when buying something ornoticed, as a user, a mistake or error made by a public service? Ifso, how did they react? These questions were put for two kinds ofsituation ; on the one hand for purchase of goods and, on the otherhand, for use of public services.

/

(1) Unprompted answer.

- 21 -

There were fairly marked variations between countries. In Belgium,Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany only two or three people inten remembered having been cheated. In Luxembourg, Ireland (Eire),France and the Netherlands the proportion was about four in ten, whichwas close to the mean for the Community as a whole. In the United

( 1 )Kingdom and in Italy the figure rose to five people in ten

Table 6 gives the percentage of recall of cheating for individualcountries and for the Community as a whole. Strong influence of levelof formal education is particularly noticeable for France, Ireland andBelgium.

(1) It is noteworthy that the proportion was considerably higher inGreat Britain than in Northern Ireland (48% compared with 55%).The influence of the level of education was also much more marked:

Level of education

Low Average High

Remembered having been cheated:

- Great Britain- Northern Ireland

45%26

51%40

55%62

- 22-

Table 6

RECALLED BEING CHEATED OVER A PURCHASE(1)

(1) The countries are listed in ascending order of percentage of "yes" replies.

(2) The three levels correspond to the end of full-time education: at under 16 years,

at 16 to 19 years, at 20 years or over.

(3) Weighted mean.

- 2 3 -

Among people who claimed to have been cheated the purchases mostoften mentioned were those of fresh foodstuffs and of clothing.

No significant differences between the various social categoriesare apparent and any variations that there are can probably be attributedto the parts played by men and by women in managing the budget, to thekind of purchases made and to the volume of purchases according tocomposition of the household.

Therefore, only the results for the Community as a whole will begiven here (Table 7).

- 24-

Table 7

CHEATING ON GOODS(Community as a whole)

(1) Total more than 100: more than one answer given by some respondents.

Strangely enough, the same proportion of complaints about publicservices as for purchases of goods were found: 40% of consumersthroughout the Community as a whole felt that they (or their spouse)recently had reason to complain about a mistake or error made by oneof the public services under reference.

Here again, there was little variation according to sex, the olderpeople were slightly less inclined to mention dissatisfaction and theclearest correlation was with the level of education: cause for complaintrose with people's level of education. Indubitably, consumers' orusers' readiness to express dissatisfaction is linked with their

(1 )educational level, even if other characteristics must play a part- '.

The differences from one country to another were slightly moremarked here: in Denmark, Belgium and Luxembourg only two people in tenhad experienced cause for complaint; the proportions were three in tenin the Netherlands, Ireland and the Federal Republic of Germany, fourin ten in the. United Kingdom and six in ten in Italy. The breakdownlooks much the same for both kinds of situation.—'

(1) In both cases there was also a correlation with income, less markedthan that with level of education but in the same direction: thepeople with highest income had most often been dissatisfied;

Income levelLow Lower middle Upper middle High

Recalled being cheated over apurchase

» »Recalled cause for complaintabout a public service

(2) See next page. '

38%

37

40%

38

43%

41

44%

45

- 26 -

The influence of the level of education was significant in sevenof the nine countries and was particularly strong in France.

(See Table 8).

(2) In both cases respondents in Northern Ireland had noticed lesscause for complaint than those in Britain:

Overall Level of educationLow Average High

Recalled cause for complaint abouta public service:

- Great Britain- Northern Ireland

(1) The countries are listed in. ascending order of percentage of "yes" replies.

(2) Weighted mean,

- 28-

The services most often mentioned by people who had had cause forcomplaint about a public service were water/gas/electricity andthe telephone service.

See Table 9.

Table 9

COMPLAINTS ABOUT PUBLIC SERVICES(Community as a whole)


- 29-

5. REACTIONS OF THE DISSATISFIED CONSUMER OR USER

After each of the two last-mentioned questions, people who said

they had been cheated when buying something or had experienced a

mistake or an error as a user of a public service were asked: "Did

you take any action?" If YES; "What did you do?"(1)

We have seen that about 40% of the respondents recalled dissatisfaction

with a seller or a public service. In both cases more than a third said

they had not done anything or - which no doubt amounts to the same - did

not remember what they had done.

The majority of those who had acted in the matter had confined

themselves to individual steps which were not much trouble. Very fewpeople had complained to a consumers' organization or publication or

taken legal action.

In the case of complaint about a purchase the step most often taken

was speaking directly to the sales assistant (21%) and, at best, asking

for the goods to be replaced or the money refunded (22%). There were

no marked variations according to social class.

In complaint about a public service one person in two among thoseaffected (48%) went to complain verbally and one in five (20%) made

representations in writing. Action of the latter kind is, of course,

influenced by the level of education of the person concerned.

See Tables 10 and 11.

(1) Each respondent was shown the answers corresponding to the variouspossible reactions. See Table 10.

- 31 -

Table 11

REACTION OF USERS WITH COMPLAINT ABOUT A PUBLIC SERVICE



- 32-

There was great variation between one country and another as to

what the consumer or user did. This was no doubt due to cultural traits

deserving more detailed study.

For the moment, this report will merely point out the forms of

behaviour most often mentioned in each of the two cases under reference.

1. Reaction of consumers who believed they had been cheated

when buying something.

Table 12 lists the countries in the Community in ascending order

of the percentage of respondents concerned, i.e. who believed they had

been cheated. (See also Table 6)

In one country, the Netherlands, 70% of the people concerned had

not done anything or did not mention any action. The proportion dropped

to 45% and 44%, respectively, for Belgium and for Ireland. In most of

the other countries it was close to the mean for the Community, except

in France, where it was only 24%. Compared with the Dutch, the French

go to the opposite extreme and confirm their reputation for "making a

fuss."

What did people do if they acted?

Table 12 classes together as the predominant form of action the

replies indicating a personal approach to the seller: complaint only

or asking for the goods to be replaced or the money refunded. It may

be noted that only 27% of the Dutch who felt cheated acted in this way,

compared with at least 50% of the French, British and Danish.

Except in France, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Luxembourg, not

more than 2% of the people concerned took the matter up with a consumers'

organization or publication(1).

As for legal action, the proportion was no higher than 1 or 2% of

the people concerned, at most, which is a statistically negligible figure.

(1) The answers for Luxembourg should be viewed with caution, becauseof the smallness of the sample (N = 297).

- 33-

Table 12

REACTION OF CONSUMERS CHEATED OVER A PURCHASE(By country, as percentage of people concerned(1)

(1) As in Table 6, the countries are listed in. ascending order of percentage of"yes" replies to having "been cheated when buying something." Weightedaccording to mean for the Community. The percentage shown against the nameof each country corresponds to the frequency of "yes" replies to having "beencheated" in each national sample.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 34-

2. Reaction of users who believed they had cause for complaintabout a mistake or error made by a public service.

Table 13 presents the results, listing the countries in ascendingorder of percentage of respondents concerned. (See also Table 8)

Again, the Netherlands is found to be the country where the highestproportion of the people did not react, this time followed by Germany.The people of Luxembourg, the British and the French were those who mostoften did something in the matter.

About five or six out of ten of the people concerned in France,Luxembourg, Ireland, the United Kingdom and Denmark confined themselvesto verbal complaint. About three in ten of the British, Belgians andFrench made representations in writing.

Except in Federal Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium andLuxembourg, not more than 2% of the people concerned took the matter upwith a consumers' organization or publication.

The proportion of legal action is statistically negligible.

- 35-

Table 13

REACTION OF USERS WITH COMPLAINT ABOUT A PUBLIC SERVICE

(By country, as percentage of people concerned(1)

(1) As in Table 8, the countries are listed according to increasing percentageof "yes" replies to having had "cause for complaint." Weighted accordingto mean for the Community.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 36 -

III

"RATIONALITY" OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

For all too long there has been a great deal of discussion ofthe rationality or irrationality of consumer behaviour. The sameterms have been introduced into the political sphere, with referenceto the behaviour of voters. The writers of this report hesitateslightly to take up these conventional concepts, which seem to themto be based on assumptions inconsistent with empirical research. Aconsumer seeking information about products or an elector investigatingthe programmes of parties or the candidates may consciously apply aconsistent method of assessment or may make the choice most advantageousto him, yet he does not necessarily match up to a clearly definable anduniversally accepted standard of rationality.

Any decision stems from a more or less conscious processing ofinformation, perceptions and impressions. These factors which enterinto the decision process are of a highly diverse nature and may seemto an outside observer to be "rational" or "irrational" if he judgesthem by some preconceived standard of rationality(1).

The point with which we are concerned here is whether or not therespondents, as purchasers of consumer goods, felt that they had controlover their behaviour, that they were well informed, that they weremanipulated, etc.

There was a question about the behaviour of purchasers in normalshopping for which food was chosen as an example, and one on the typeof behaviour attributed, on the whole, to other consumers. The firstof these questions involved self-evaluation and the second projectiveevaluation.

(1) Cf. D.M. Levine, "Maximizing Utility: Is it Enough?", Workshop inEconomic Behaviour, Puerto Rico, 1962, and a recent article byJ.P. Faivre, "La rationalité de l'électeur". Revue française deMarketing, July-August 1975, No. 57, pp. 27-59.

- 37-

1. EVALUATION OF OWN BEHAVIOUR AS A PURCHASER

"When you shop for food, do you often, seldom, or nevercheck; the unit p r i c e , the amount weighed, the finalbill, your change, indications on the label or packing(ingredients, date of freshness, etc)?"(1)

In the Community as a whole eight people in ten (83%) said theyoften checked their change; about two-thirds of the respondents oftenchecked the final bill (66%), the unit price (66%) and indications onthe label or packing (65%); only four in ten (42%) often checked theamount weighed.

Index numbers worked out from the frequency of the replies "often","seldom" or "never" for each item enable the following scale for consumerbehaviour to be formed:

- attention to change given- attention to the final bill- attention to the label or packing- attention to the unit price- attention to the amount weighed

Mean score

See Table 14.

(1) Subsequently to this survey, in March 1976, the European Commissionadopted and submitted to the Council of Ministers for decision aproposal for a directive on harmonization of the laws of the MemberStates relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising offoodstuffs intended for the final consumer.

- 38 -

Table 14

EVALUATION OF OWN BEHAVIOUR AS A PURCHASERWHEN SHOPPING FOR FOOD(Community as a whole)

Checked;

A. the unit price

B. the amount weighed

C. the final bill

D. the change given

E. indications on thelabel or packing

Often

66%

42

66

83

65

Seldom

16%

25

18

9

20

Never

14%

29

12

5

11

Don't know/no reply

4%

4

4

3

4

Total

100%

100

100

100

100

Indexnumber(1);

2,55

2,13

2,57

2,81

2,56

(1) "Often" = 3, "never" = 1. Hence, the mean value is 2.0.

- 39-

How does the behaviour vary according to social category?

Strangely enough, neither composition of the family nor level ofeducation nor income level significantly influenced purchasers' behaviourin this context. Except in the matter of checking indications on thelabel or packing, the only apparent variation is a slight tendency forthe people with the lowest level of education and the lowest income to

(1)pay more attention- '.

However, sex and age did i n f l u e n c e behaviour. Women emerged asbetter shoppers than men, no doubt because they more often have to goshopping for food: the actual subject-matter of the question must notbe overlooked. Age produced little variation among women but youngmen (15 - 24 years) were less careful shoppers than older men(2).

See Table 15.

(1) If behaviour of purchasers of consumer durables (furniture, televisionsets, refrigerators, etc) had been investigated the results woulddoubtless have been very different. A survey carried out in theUnited States has shown that the purchase decision process becomesmore strongly motivated as the purchaser's income becomes lower, asthe object becomes more expensive and as the purchaser's standardof education rises.

See George Katona and Eva Mueller, "A Study of Purchase Decision",in Lincoln H. dark (Edition): Consumer Behavior. The Dynamics ofConsumer Reaction. New York University Press, 1954.

(2) A recent survey among Americans in the age range from 14 to 25 yearsshowed that the feeling of "rational" behaviour as a consumer increasedwith age, was slightly stronger in males than in females and wasmarkedly stronger in married persons than in single persons. See"Young Americans as Consumers". Gilbert Youth Research, March 1974.Sponsored by the Institute of Life Insurance. Current Opinion,Vol. Ill, 5, May 1975, PP. 44-46.

- 40-

Table 15

INDEX NUMBERS FOR BEHAVIOUR AS A PURCHASER

ACCORDING TO SEX AND AGE(Community as a whole)

The variations between countries are greater than those between

age groups. The best shoppers seemed to be the people of Luxembourg,the Italians, the Germans, the French and the British, but from the

analyses made so far it is impossible to detect how closely thedifferences correlated with demographic features or other variables,

(1)perhaps including cultural factors ' '" .

See Table 16.

(1) We would mention that for Northern Ireland the mean score for the fiveitems was 2.33, compared with 2.54 tor Great Britain, which suggeststhat differences between regions are as great as differences betweencountries. As it happens, the mean score for Northern Ireland wasmuch closer to that for the Republic of Ireland (2.50) than to thatfor Great Britain.

- 41 -

Table 16

EVALUATION OF OWN BEHAVIOUR AS A PURCHASESWHEN SHOPPING FOR FOOD

(By country)

- 42-

2. PROJECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF PURCHASERS IN GENERAL

"Here are some opinions about t h e way in which people dotheir shopping. Could you tell me for each opinion

whether you agree entirely, agree on the whole, disagree

on the whole, disagree entirely, or have no opinion?"(1)

At first sight the answers are rather difficult to interpret.

Nearly a third of the respondents (30%) answered "agree entirely"

for the opinion that "most people are very careful about what they

buy and think before deciding." Yet nearly a quarter of the sample

judged equally definitely that "most people let themselves be influenced

mainly by advertising" (23%) or that "most people think that a higher

price nearly always means better quality" (24%).

See Table 17.

(1) A list of three opinions followed. See Table 17.

- 43-

Table 17

PROJECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOUR

OF PURCHASERS IN GENERAL


A. Most people are very

careful about what

they buy and think

before deciding

B. Most people let

themselves be

influenced mainly

by advertising

C. Host people think that

a higher price nearly

always means better

quality

Agreeentirely

30%

23

24

Agreeon thewhole

39%

40

39

Disagreeon thewhole

21%

22

21

Disagreeentirely

6%

11

12

No opinion/no reply

4%

4

4

Total

100%

100

100

- 44-

Logically, the first of the statements does not conflict with theother two: a person may both think before buying and let himself beinfluenced in favour of a particular product (or a particular brand) byadvertising by comparison with a price indicating good quality. Yetone might think that the tendency to "rationalize" the purchasing decisionafterwards ought to be reflected in a negative answer to the first question(indicating that "people are not very careful ...") and a positive answerto both the other questions (agreeing that "people let themselves beinfluenced by advertising" and "people think that a higher price meansbetter quality"). However, as already mentioned, all three questionsobtained agreement from a majority of the public.

Detailed examination of the distribution of the answers makes thematter clearer: the same variables influenced the replies to Question Aand the replies to questions B and C.

The answers as to thinking before buying (A) depended above all onthe level of education, but in a negative correlation, i.e. the bettereducated the respondents were, the less often they agreed with theopinion put to them ("most people are very careful ...").

The answers for the other two items (B and C) still depended on thelevel of education but to a lesser extent and in positive correlation:the better educated the respondents were, the more often they judgedthat people allowed themselves to be influenced by advertising andthought expensive goods were better quality goods.

Thus, it seems that our three items fulfilled their purpose ofprojective evaluation, because they revealed decision factors additionalto that of age revealed by the self-evaluation studied by means of thepreceding question:

- no doubt the answers to the first item expressed a kind ofprejudice: the better educated respondents were, the lessinclined they were to judge that most people think beforebuying, although the majority opinion obtained from all levelsof education was that people did think (73%, 67% and 56%)

- 45 -

- the answers for the other two items must surely representanother aspect of the same prejudice, which produces the ideathat most people let themselves be influenced by advertisingand purchase less "rationally" than they ought to; again, thebetter educated respondents tended to give these opinions morefrequently, but level of education had less effect, becausequite a lot of the respondents with little formal educationexpressed the same views.

The answers of women and of men were in fairly close consensus andthe small differences found tied up with the reason suggested above.

Income level affected the first item less strongly than aid levelof education thus confirming the likelihood of prejudice playing apart. Income exercised almost as much effect as education on the seconditem and even slightly more than education on the third item: peoplewith above-average income tended to attribute slightly more importanceto the influence of advertising and of a higher price.

Table 18 gives the combined results for these items from all therespondents in the countries of the European Community. An indexnumber provides a measure for each item of the direction and magnitudeof variation, among the respondents who gave an answer, attributable toeach of the variables studied.

- 46-

Table 18

PROJECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF PURCHASERS IN GENERALACCORDING TO SEX, STANDARD OF EDUCATION AND INCOME OF THE HOUSEHOLD


(1) "Agree entirely" = 4, "disagree entirely" = 1. Hence, scores above 2.5 expressan attitude of agreement with the question put and scores below 2.5 express anattitude of disagreement.

- 47-

Let us now look at the distribution of the answers in eachcountry.

The variations from one country to another were greater than

those mentioned above in discussion of the overall results.

As expected, Items B and C obtained very similar relative proportions

and index values within each individual country. However, for Item A

there seems to be a different set of magnitudes influenced by other

variables.

See Table 19.

- 48-'

Table 19

PROJECTIVE EVALUATION OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF PURCHASERS IN GENERAL

(By country)

(1) 'Weighted mean

(2) "Agree entirely" = 4, "disagree entirely" = 1.

- 49-

IV

THE FEELING OF HAVING SUFFICIENT 05 INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION

Are consumers provided with sufficient information? The only wayto find out is to ask them. And since it makes a great deal of

difference in this connexion whether major purchases or usual purchases

are involved, two questions were asked:

"Do you feel that consumers like you have sufficient or

insufficient information to make major purchases like

furniture, household appliances, television, cars, etc?"

"Do you feel that consumers like you have sufficient informationwhen shopping for food?"

The results for the two kinds of purchasing were fairly similar:

in the Community as a whole 45% of the respondents felt that they had

sufficient information to make major purchases and 51% felt adequately

informed for shopping for food.

The variations between men and women were negligible but seemed to

go in opposing directions, so that on average, men appeared to be justa little more satisfied with the information they had when it came to

major purchases and women appeared to be slightly more satisfied inconnexion with shopping for food. Level of formal education, size of

household or income had no clearly discernible influence. By contrast,

age correlated with satisfaction as to information, in that young people

(15-24 years) felt less frequently than their elders did that they had

sufficient information, with the values for satisfaction apparently

settling at a fairly uniform level for the groups above 40 years (1).

(See Table 20).

(1) A rough measure of the influence of age is obtained by calculatingthe mean percentages of "sufficient information" answers for thetwo items together:

- 50-

Table 20

LEVEL OF CONSUMER INFORMATION


- 51-

The variations from one country to another are much more markedthan the differences between social categories within one country.Both for major purchases and in connexion with shopping for food theGerman and Danish consumers seemed to be those most satisfied that theyhad sufficient information; for both items the Belgian consumers werewell below the mean for the Community and the Italian consumers were

( 1 )still further below the mean .

The influence of age seemed to vary according to country and typeof purchase.

For major purchases age had a particularly marked influence inFrance (more especially among men and to a lesser degree among women)and in Belgium (among men).

In relation to shopping for food the influence of age was greatestin Denmark and in France, again chiefly among men and to a lesser degreeamong women.

(See Table 21)

Why do men in those countries less frequently feel that they havesufficient information and why are the young men even less satisfied inthis matter than older men? There is no indication that the answer liesin consumer behaviour but, unfortunately, data for frequency of acts ofpurchasing by age group and by sex are not available. Is there acorrelation with the level of education? There is no evidence tosupport this, except that in several of the countries the people withthe most formal education tended to be the group giving the highestproportion of answers claiming insufficient information.

(1) Strangely enough, the sample from the Republic of Ireland was wellup the list for sufficient information in the case of shopping forfood and in next to last place in connexion with purchases of durablegoods.

- 52 -

A point which emerges clearly is that in each country - and in

proportions which vary from one country to another - the interplay of

a whole set of factors contributes towards consumers' impression of

being sufficiently informed. Only comparison from a time-series could

show' whether the subjective feeling of shortage of information among

young people correlates with their age or is characteristic of the

generation represented in this sample.

These variations according to age and sex probably also occur( 11between regions within any one country(1).

(1) See, for example, the case of Northern Ireland as compared withGreat Britain and with the republic of Ireland:

There are remarkably large differences between the three ''regions 1 underconsideration in the percentages of people who claimed "sufficient information."In regard to major purchases Northern Ireland is closer to the republic thanto Great Britain, .ithin the latter country young men felt considerably lesswell-informed than older men did. In respect of shopping for food NorthernIreland is closer to the republic than to Great Britain. The influence of agewas especially marked among women, and in Northern Ireland more than in theother two ''regions''.

- 53-

Table 21

CONSUMERS WITH SUFFICIENT INFORMATION

(By country and by age and sex)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of the answer"sufficient information."

- 54-

V

ATTITUDES TO ADVERTISING

There is no shortage of criticism of advertising in any country

where it plays a major part in social and economic life. In the

United States, for example, which is probably the country where

advertising has been carried furthest, a survey carried out in 1972

showed that 47% of the male and 45% of the female respondents considered

that "most advertising today tries to deceive people rather than inform

them"; 68% of the men and 66% of the women thought that "advertising

causes people to buy things they don't need"; and 70% of the men and

67% of the women expressed the opinion that "the government should

provide product information because producers and distributors do notgive all the essential information." These attitudes were in negative

correlation with age and in positive correlation with the level of formal

education(1).

What are the main criticisms made of advertising?

The excesses and abuses are most frequently denounced and provoke

efforts by the profession to introduce standards of self-discipline and

obtain compliance with these, as well as intervention by the administrative

authorities to suppress "dishonest or misleading advertising"(2)'.

However, there are critics who go further, attacking the verynotion of advertising influence as it is being applied in present-daysociety. Such critics claim that advertising does more harm than good,

since, according to them, the sole concern of producers and distributors

who commission very costly market research is to sell products, i.e. to

maximize profit. Allegedly, almost any means to that end is condoned

(1) "Most advertising today tries to deceive people rather than informthem". "Advertising causes people to buy things they don't need"."The government should provide product information because producersand distributors do not give all the essential information".(Daniel Starch and Staff Inc.: "Starch Continuing Media/MarketService", February 1972. National sample of 18 000 households).

(2) The administrative units of the Commission of the EuropeanCommunities are, at the time of writing this report, preparing adraft directive on this subject.

— 55 -

by the organizations which want to sell the goods, with the result thatsome advertising campaigns have no connexion with the objective qualitiesof the products or any needs of which the consumer is aware. The aimin such cases is said to be to work on unconscious consumer motivations

and thus persuade people to buy, so that in such cases advertising is

predominantly concerned with persuading people to develop images of

behaviour which encourage fantasy or make up for certain kinds of

dissatisfaction (chiefly social, emotional or sexual) in the potentialpurchaser rather than with presenting the product itself. The suggestion

is that if one buys the product one becomes like the person shown in the

advertisement. Those who defend advertising often talk about "theright to dream", thus acknowledging that they see selling dreams as one

of its functions(1).

Another argument frequently put forward on behalf of advertising is

that it is the driving force behind economic expansion, which may wellbe true to some extent in our free market economies but cannot be the

only such force in countries where there is substantial expenditure bycentral and local authorities on public services. Nor can one easily

overlook the waste of resources of all kinds involved in advertising in

certain sectors of the market or for certain sorts of goods''(2).

Advertising is a very complex phenomenon which takes a great manyforms but it is a reality in economic and cultural life in our societyand deserves thorough investigation, if possible with a cool, unprejudicedapproach. It may be true that advertising, as a ''means of perpetuatingour way of life" reflects back to consumers their own subconscious imageof themselves, but we need first to know more about another image, namelythe picture of advertising which consumers build up in their minds,

whether consciously or not.

(1) See, for example, the studies produced by a leading expert, ErnestDichter: "'The Strategy of Desire'' (I960), "Handbook of ConsumerMotivations" (1964).

A current topic among market research experts is what advertisingstrategies are best designed to maximize sales and profit, in thelight of the "target groups" and the products or brands to be

55 continued

promoted. It is accepted that the most efficacious sequence,according to the particular case, may be one of the following:

- obtain awareness - liking - purchase- obtain purchase - liking - awareness- obtain awareness - purchase - liking

The information function (obtaining awareness; thus becomes ofentirely relative importance. Cf. Ch. Derbaix: "Les reactionsdes consommateurs à la communication publicitaire et la hiérarchiedes effets". Revue française du Marketing, No. 58, September-October 1975, Pp. 7-26.

(2) For example, where the objective or the effect of an advertisingcampaign is to acquire a shift from one brand to another of a tinypercentage of the overall volume of sales of products of like kind(such as mineral waters) or even of identical kind (such as brandsof petrol or washing powder).

- 56 -

Two questions were put for this purpose:

"On the basis of your own experience, do you entirely agree,agree on the whole, disagree on the whole, or entirely disagreewith the following opinions?

A. Advertising provides consumers with useful information.

B. Advertising often makes consumers buy goods which theydo not really need.

C. Advertising often misleads consumers as to the qualityof products.

"Do you think that brands which are heavily advertised are more

expensive or less expensive than those which are less advertisedor are not advertised at all?"(1)

The first proposition, tending to put advertising in a favourable

light, obtained 50% of agreement and 46% of disagreement. Logicallyit cannot be denied that advertising also provides consumers with usefulinformation; the results therefore show that the image of advertising

is unfavourable in almost half the public.

The answers to the other two propositions make that disapprovalclear: nearly eight people in ten thought that "advertising often makespeople buy goods which they do not really need" or that "advertising

often misleads consumers as to the quality of products".

Moreover, 62% of the respondents believed that "brands which areheavily advertised are more expensive than those which are less advertised

or are not advertised at all". (See Tables 22 and 23)

(1) It should perhaps be explained that the authors of this report realizethat it was rash to take up this particularly complicated topic.The answers to two questions do not fully cover the subject. Moreover,whatever the wording of the questions, it could be criticized.However, the aim was not to make a study of advertising but to note,within a study of European consumers, some basic attitudes toadvertising. It would be useful if professional bodies in theadvertising world would work in collaboration with consumer protectionorganizations and independent experts in trying to take thisinvestigation further than was required in the context - and thefinancial limits - of our survey. Indeed, a "market research survey"on these lines would seem to deserve priority over many other kindsof project.

- 5 7 -

Table 22

THREE OPINIONS ON ADVERTISING


(1) "Agree entirely" = 4, "disagree entirely" = 1. Hence, scores above 2.5express an attitude of agreement with the question put, among respondentswho gave a reply, and scores below 2.5 express an attitude of disagreementamong respondents who gave a reply.

- 58-

Table 23

DOES ADVERTISING MAKE BRANDS MORE EXPENSIVE?(Community as a whole)

Brands which are heavily advertised;

- are more expensive 62%- are less expensive 6- no difference(1) 20

Don't know/no reply 12

Total 100

(1) Volunteered answer

A breakdown of the answers shows that the replies of menand of women were very much in line with each other for all thesequestions. There was little variation according to age, but onthe whole the younger people (especially among the women) tendedto express an unfavourable view of advertising. So did thebetter-off people. But the level of formal education was themost important variable: more education tended to make peoplemore critical of advertising.

- 59-

It may be noted also that the answers to Item A ("advertisingprovides useful information") and to the question dealing with therelationship between advertising and more expensive brands were moreevenly distributed over the social categories than the answers toItem B ("advertising makes consumers buy goods which they do not need")or Item C ("advertising often misleads consumers as to the quality ofproducts"). We have already seen that people with the longest formal

education take the most critical attitude. Given that these peopletend to act as "opinion leaders" and constitute an ever-increasingsection of the total population, the last two views - disapproving ofadvertising - are likely to become more widespread(1);.

(See Tables 24 and 25)

(1) There is a shortage of data from which to make a rigorous comparisonwith previous surveys. However, a comparison made in Great Britaindemonstrates that disapproval of advertising is spreading. Somequestions on the same lines as ours were put by The Gallup Poll(London) on two occasions, in January and May 1973. A comparisonbetween the means from those two polls and the results for the samecountry in October 1975 is given below:

- 60-

(1) continued:

The same thing is happening in the United States. The Vice-presidentof one of the biggest advertising agencies, addressing the annualcongress of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in March1975, quoted the results of two rigorously comparable opinion pollsconducted among the people of the United States, in 1964 and 1974.In ten years, the percentage of answers expressing disapproval ofadvertising had risen by an average of nearly 30%. The speaker pointedout that apart from 5% of the population which had a consistently"anti-establishment" attitude, 16% of Americans, predominantly with ahigh level of formal education and markedly higher than average incomeand mainly among men in the 30-45 years age group, expressed strongcriticism of advertising. On the other hand, the people best-disposedtowards advertising were in the least educated, least well-off andoldest section of the population.

Source: Kene Bartos (J . Wal terThompson Company), "The Consumer View ofAdvertising - 1974."

- 61 -

Table 24

THREE OPINIONS ON ADVERTISINGBREAKDOWN BY SEX, AGE. FAMILY INCOME AND LEVEL Of EDUCATION


- 65 -

For greater clarity, each item (A, B, C) and the question on theeffect of advertising on the price of brands will be examined separatelyfor the differences in attitude according to country.

1) Item A: "Advertising provides consumers with useful information"

Here again, we find a greater variation in attitude according tocountry than according to the different levels of education within theCommunity as a whole.

The countries where advertising seems to be best accepted or, to bemore precise, those where the largest numbers of respondents consideredadvertising to be helpful, were, in order of level of acceptance,Luxembourg, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic ofGermany. Belgium and France came close to the mean for the Communityas a whole: in those countries people were almost equally divided betweenthose who agreed and those who disagreed with the opinion set forth above.Least agreement was obtained in Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands.

Within each country the influence of education was fairly strong,especially in Luxembourg and in France: the better-educated people were,the less they tended to agree, i.e. to regard advertising as providingconsumers with useful information. The least favourable views werefound among Italians and Dutch with an average or high level of formaleducation.

2) Item B: "Advertising often makes consumers buy goods whichthey do not really need."

The variations between countries were more marked than for Item A.In all the countries there was a positive answer from the majority ofpeople, i.e. the majority expressed agreement with the opinion thatadvertising made consumers buy goods which they did not really need.

- 66-

Highest in the order came the Belgians, the Luxembourgers and theFrench, followed by the people of the Republic of Ireland. The Italianscame just above the mean for the Community and the British just below.According to this means of measurement, the least unfavourable attitudesto advertising were those of the Germans and the Dutch.

The attitude measured by Item B would appear to be of a differentnature from that corresponding to Item A: this likelihood is borne outby the different order of the countries in the scale of results.

The influence of the level of formal education was less marked herethan for Item A, although not negligible. The most critical view wastaken by Belgians with a high or average level of education and byFrench people with a high level of education. The least critical

(1)attitude was shown by Germans and Dutch with little formal education .

5) Item C; "Advertising often misleads consumers as to thequality of products

This item probably corresponds to the same kind (dimension) ofattitude as the preceding item. The placings of the countries in theresults indicates that this is so: all the countries with mean indexscores above the mean for the Community for Item C were also above themean for Item B, and vice versa. Thus, on this point Belgium andLuxembourg, France, Ireland and Italy emerged as the countries mosthostile to advertising and the United Kingdom, Denmark, the FederalRepublic of Germany and the Netherlands as the least hostile.

It may be noted that both the differences from one country toanother and those within each country are less marked for Item C thanfor Item B, which means that the opinion that "advertising often misleadsconsumers as to the quality of products" is very widely held in EECMember States, rather more frequently in those with a Catholic tradition

( l ) It is worth mentioning, although with caution because of thesmallness of the sample, that in Luxembourg, unlike the findingsfor the other countries, the best-educated people seemed leastfrequently to agree with proposition B.

- 67

( 1 )than in the other countries' '.

(See Table 26)

4) Question on advertising and the price of goods

The differences from one country to another yielded two distinctgroups: in Italy, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdomthe great majority of respondents (about seven in ten) considered thatheavily advertised brands are more expensive; in the other six countriesthis was a minority opinion. The differences according to level ofeducation were fairly small and not alike for all countries.

It will be seen that a sizeable proportion of the respondents eitherdid not reply to this question or gave an answer of rather doubtfulmeaning ("no difference"). Those people who refused to adopt a definiteposition amounted to about half the sample in some countries and thepercentage was sometimes even higher in the least-educated group (forexample in the Netherlands). As a result, it is difficult to comparethe results with those for the preceding question.

(See Table 27)

( l ) Clearly, this last remark does not necessarily suggest a causalrelationship between religious tradition and attitude to advertising,because other variables may be involved. However, it appears thatin the Netherlands people with a high level of education, which isprobably the social group containing the greatest number ofnon-Catholics, had a less favourable attitude to advertising.

- 68-

Table 26

THREE OPINIONS ON ADVERTISING(By country and by level of education)(1)

A. Advertising; provides consumers with useful information

- 70 continued -

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of index values.

(2) See note (1) under table 22.

- 71 -

Table 27

DOES ADVERTISING MAKE GOODS MORE EXPENSIVE?(By country and by level of education)(1)

- 71 continued -

(1) The countries are listed in decreasing order of frequency of the reply''more expensive."

VI

ATTITUDES TO INFORMATION MEDIA

We have already seen that between four and five European consumers

in every ten considered that they had sufficient information and that,

although by a narrow majority the consensus of opinion was that advertising

provided useful information, on the whole advertising has a rather poor

image. How do people rate the other means of information (dailynewspapers, magazines and periodicals, radio and television) and,

especially, the means specifically designed to give consumers information?

This section deals with such considerations.

1. CONSUMERS AND THE MAIN INFORMATION MEDIA

"Do you think that the following information media provide

good, poor or no information at all for consumers: daily

newspapers, magazines and periodicals, radio, television?"

"Do you know of any television broadcasts (in your country),

other than advertisements, which are specifically designed

to provide consumers with objective information?"

"Would you like such broadcasts introduced (or extended)?"

In the Community as a whole, the medium most often regarded asproviding useful consumer information was television, followed by radio,

the daily newspapers, weekly magazines and periodicals. This order

which emerged from subjective judgment doubtless corresponds to observable

reality. In most EEC countries there are special television and radiobroadcasts for consumer information, whereas, with few exceptions, the

daily or periodical press seems to be afraid of upsetting the advertisers

on whom its living depends by devoting much space to such information.

- 73-

People with a high level of formal education were more criticalof each of the main information media.


Table 28

ASSESSMENT OF THE MAIN INFORMATION MEDIAAS TO PROVISION OF CONSUMES INFORMATION


- 74-

Table 29

ASSESSMENT OF THE MAIN INFORMATION MEDIABREAKDOWN BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION

(Community as a whole)(1)

(1) Don't know/no reply is omitted.

- 75 -

The variations from one country to another were greater than thoseproduced within each country by the different levels of education; theywere more marked in the case of daily newspapers and television thanfor periodicals and radio.

Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdomtended to produce the highest ratings, whilst France, Belgium and Italy

M )tended to yield the lowest ones- '.

(See Table 30)

(1) It should be mentioned that in Northern Ireland there was a muchmore critical attitude to the information media, especially thedaily press, than in Great Britain:

- 76-

Table 30

ASSESSMENT OF THE MAIN INFORMATION MEDIA(By country)(1)

- 77-

Continuation

Ireland

Federal Republicof GermanyDenmark

Luxembourg

United Kingdom

FranceNetherlands

Belgium

Italy

Community(2)

Denmark

Federal Republicof GermanyUnited Kingdom

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Belgium

FranceIreland

Italy

Community(2)

(1) For each item the countries are listed in descending order of thefrequency of answers "good information."

(2) Weighted mean.

- 78-

In point of fact, most of the television companies in the MemberStates of the Community, with the exception of Tele-Luxembourg, assignsome time, either regularly or occasionally, to objective informationfor consumers. Such broadcasts were first introduced in Denmark in1954. Other television channels followed this lead more or lessbelatedly and not without problems.

Broadcasts of this kind raise a host of legal and political problems.To put it mildly, producers and advertisers do not much like programmesof this kind and for some countries one could make a long list ofbroadcasts that were prepared and then abandoned, postponed or altered(1).

Without entering into discussion of the relative merits of specificbroadcasts or even naming them, it may be mentioned that consumer affairsare receiving increasing attention from television in many countries, asshown by the time of day, length and subject matter of the programmes,by the amount of freedom which producers are allowed and by the discussionswhich sometimes ensue, in turn making the general public more sensitiveto these matters.

Danish television seems to have advanced furthest in evolving thenotion of possible subject-matter for a broadcast intended s p e c i f i c a l l yfor consumers: for example, it includes in the scope of such broadcaststhe decision-making process at management level in a commercial enterpriseleading to the launch of a product and the setting of the selling price.

In France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Ireland not more thanan hour of broadcasting time a month is spent on programmes devoted s p e c i f i -c a l l y to information for consumers but in Denmark, Germany and theUnited Kingdom that total is far exceeded.

(1) See "Les emissions de television consacrées aux consommateurs dansles pays de la Communaute", Industrie et Société, 7 October 1970.Commission of the European Communities, Directorate-General forInformation.

- 79 -

One of the West German channels is particularly noted for filmsequences giving consumers financial, legal or technical advice.

Some countries attach great importance to consumer participation.This may be noted above all in Danish television, Dutch-language Belgiantelevision and on the British channels.

Such broadcasts are, of course, best-known in the countries wherethey are given by national television networks; hence, in Denmark (69%of the respondents), the Netherlands (59%), Belgium (50%) and France,Germany and the United Kingdom (48%). In Italy there are such broadcastsbut they are not as widely known; in Luxembourg there are none buttelevision viewers may be aware of programmes in the neighbouringcountries; in Ireland consumer information is provided but not byregular broadcasts for that purpose.

In the absence of a set of overall ratings, which would inevitablybe arbitrary, it may reasonably be inferred that the answers given bythe respondents supply a fairly satisfactory measure of the endeavoursof television coverage in the various countries to inform consumers asobjectively as possible.

(See Table 51).

On the whole, such broadcasts were best-known among young women(25-39 years), people with income above the national average, thebetter-educated respondents and people living in cities or large towns.

- 8 0 -

Table 31

KNOWLEDGE OF CONSUMES INFORMATION TELEVISION BROADCASTS.OTHER THAN COMMERCIAL SPOTS

(By country)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of repliesclaiming knowledge of such broadcasts.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 81 -

The consensus of opinion was very markedly in favour of theintroduction or extension of such broadcasts. Not surprisingly,a wish for such broadcasts to be introduced or extended was mostfrequently expressed in those countries where they did not existor occurred at irregular intervals and therefore were not well-known,hence in Ireland, in Italy and in Luxembourg. In France, where suchbroadcasts exist and were known to slightly less than half the sample,82% of the respondents would like them to be extended(1).

The overall finding for the Community was that eight people inevery ten (77%) favoured the introduction or increase of televisionbroadcasts specifically designed to provide consumers with objectiveinformation. Young women (15-39 years) and people with above-averageincome were the groups from which replies in favour of more suchbroadcasts were most frequently obtained.


(1) Once again, the results from Great Britain and from Northern Irelandwere found to differ:

Great Britain Northern IrelandKnew of such broadcasts 48% 26%(Would like such broadcastsintroduced or extended 69% 76%

- 82-

Table 32

FOR OR AGAINST THE INTRODUCTION OR EXTENSION OF

TELEVISION BROADCASTS TO PROVIDE CONSUMERS WITH OBJECTIVE INFORMATION

(By country)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of repliesin favour.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 83-

Table 33

FOR OR AGAINST THE INTRODUCTION OR EXTENSION OF

TELEVISION BROADCASTS TO PROVIDE CONSUMERS WITH OBJECTIVE INFORMATION ;

BREAKDOWN BY SIX. AGE. FAMILY INCOME AND LEVEL OF EDUCATION


- 84-

2. SPECIALIZED CONSUMER INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS OR PRESS ARTICLES

"Are there newspapers, magazines or other publications whichprovide information on how to buy more wisely?" If yes;"which?"(1)

"What is the most important kind of information you look forin this publication? And the second most important?

- foodstuffs- textile products (clothing, household linen, etc)- toiletries and beauty products- household equipment (household appliances, furniture, etc)- savings, insurance, credit, etc- general consumer matters."

In all the countries of the Community there are organizations - ofvarying size and scope - which exist for the purpose of protectingconsumers and which publish their own periodicals(2). in addition,daily newspapers and other publications of various kinds try - or maybe regarded by the public as trying - to provide consumer information.

On the whole, the public is ill-informed in this connexion: inthe Community as a whole half the sample had not heard of the existenceof such publications or press articles. Ignorance of their existenceranged from 37% of the respondents in the United Kingdom and 40% in theFederal Republic of Germany, to 65% in Ireland and 71% in Italy(3).

(1) There followed, for use by the interviewer, a list which did notgive names but contained kinds of publications:

- specialized consumer information publications- daily newspapers- women's magazines- general interest magazines/periodicals- other

(2) See "Consumers Directory" edited by the International Organizationof Consumers Unions (9, Emmastraat, The Hague, Netherlands).

(3) The proportions were 36% in Great Britain and 56% in Northern Ireland.

- 85 -

Names of specialized consumer information publications were quotedby four respondents in ten in the United Kingdom (42%), by three in tenin Denmark and in Belgium and by only about one person in ten in Irelandand Italy.

Daily newspapers were more often mentioned in Germany and inLuxembourg than in the other countries. Women's magazines and generalinterest magazines or periodicals, respectively, were indicated by aboutone person in ten.

Thus, in all the countries except the United Kingdom the public wasfairly ill-informed of the existence of specialized consumer informationpublications and, at the same time, did not find in the press as a wholethe information which it apparently would like to receive.

(See Table 34)

Awareness of the existence of the specialized publications becamemore frequent with longer education group and increased even more asincome became higher.

(See Table 35)

- 86-

Table 34

PUBLIC AWARENESS OF SPECIALIZED CONSUMER INFORMATION PUBLICATIONSOR PRESS ARTICLES

(By country)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of "yes" replies,i.e. ability to name at least one type of publication.

(2) Total more than 100: more than one answer from some respondents.

(3) Weighted mean.

- 87-

Table 35

AWARENESS OF SPECIALIZED CONSUMER INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS ;BREAKDOWN BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND OF FAMILY INCOME(1)

(By country)

(1) The figures in brackets are for the percentage of respondents aware of thespecialized publications: see Table 34, first column.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 88-

The information which people sought most in these publications was

found to be that on general consumer matters, followed by that onfoodstuffs, then that on household equipment.

A rather higher proportion of men than of women put general consumer

matters first or second. Women were slightly more concerned than men

with information on foodstuffs and information on textile products»

The differences according to level of education or level of incomewere even more interesting:

a) the better-educated people and still more the people with

markedly higher than average income tended to pay most attentionto information on general consumer matters, then on householdequipment, then on savings, insurance, credit, etc;

b) apart from the foregoing, a distinctive feature of people with

high income was greater interest in information on textileproducts, which, of course, includes women's and men's fashions.

Publishers of publications or articles designed to interest, inform

or protect consumers should note from these findings that in order to

succeed in capturing the attention of men and of women they need to deal

with both general matters and specific kinds of goods: foodstuffs,

household equipment, textile products, etc.

They should also realize that the section of their readership with

the most varied interests is composed c h i e f l y of people who are in the

higher social classes both in income and in education.

(See Table 36)

- 89-

Table 36

KIND OF INFORMATION SOUGHTIN CONSUMER INFORMATION PUBLICATIONS AND ARTICLES(Community as a whole, only those respondents whowere aware of such publications or articles)(1)(2)

(1) The figures in brackets show the percentage of respondents who said they know ofpublications or articles which provided consumer information.

(2) The rows add up to more than 100% because some respondents gave more than one answer.

- 90 -

VII

ATTITUDES TO CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS

It is none too easy to determine what constitutes a consumer

organization. There are, for example, trade union organizations,

societies and women's organizations which try to inform and protect

consumers(1). However, we can take it that the public, or at any rate

a large proportion of the public, including people who are not members

of any organization of that kind, knows of the existence of independent

organizations whose objects are to inform and protect consumers.

Hence, the following series of questions:

"Have you already heard about organizations which have no links

with manufacturers or traders and whose specific aim is to

inform and defend the consumer?"

"Can you name one of these organizations (in your country)?"

"Are you a member of such an organization?"

"As far as you know, do you feel that the organizations (in your.

country) involved in informing and defending the consumer are

very effective, fairly effective, not very effective or not atall effective?"

"Do you think that these consumer information and protection

organizations have any influence over government policies (inyour countr)? If so: Could you state how powerful you think

their influence is: very powerful, considerable, little,

hardly any?"

(1) There are even commercial organizations which adopt the label"consumer protection."

- 91 -

"If you were offered the chance, would you agree to pay (theequivalent in national currency of 7 dollars) per annum tobecome a member of an organization which informs and defendsconsumers or to subscribe to its publication?"

1. HOW WELL-KNOWN ARE THE ORGANIZATIONS?

In the Community as a whole, 44% of the respondents had heard ofconsumer protection organizations but the latter were not very wellknown, as only half of those respondents, i.e., 23% of the overall sample,could name one of these organizations.

The proportion of people who really knew about one or more consumerorganization was higher among men than among women, higher in towns thanin villages and, yet again, the "level of awareness" rose m a i n l y w i t h

(1)level of education and income level(1).

(See Table 57)

The differences according to country were even more marked. AfterLuxembourg, a small country where everyone knows nearly everyone else,the United Kingdom came a long way ahead of the others (or rather, GreatBritain, since knowledge on this point was very sparse in NorthernIreland). The organizations were least known in Italy, where consumerprotection is scanty. (See Table 58)

To sum up, there was no country where even four people in ten couldgive the exact name of at least one consumer protection organization;the mean for the Community was lower than one person in four; by farthe lowest level of knowledge of such organizations was found in Italy.

(1) It may be seen from the table that among the people who had "heardabout" the organizations the proportion able to name one was slightlyhigher in the groups with average or high level of education.

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of "yes" replies to:'Can you name one of -these organizations?" It may be noted that among those whoreplied that they had "heard about'' the organizations the proportion who could nameone varied greatly from one country to another: about seven out of ten in theUnited Kingdom, Belgium and Luxembourg; five out of ten in France, Denmark andGermany; three out of ten in Italy and in the Netherlands. If the tendency tosay "'yes" about something not properly known remained uniform, this may mean thatin some countries more people are "vaguely aware" of consumer organizations thanin others.

(2) Comprising:Heard about them Able to name one

Great Britain 49% 37%Northern Ireland 28%, 13%

(5) weighted mean.

- 94-

2. PRESENT MEMBERSHIP AND LIKELIHOOD OF JOINING THE MEMBERSHIP OF

SUCH AN ORGANIZATION

By comparison with trade unions or political parties, consumer

protection organizations have a small membership, or at any rate a

small direct membership, because sometimes a large national membership

derives from an association of parent organizations. In some countries

the ''consumer movement" operation involves obtaining subscription to a

publication rather than recruiting members.

Because the situation varies so much from one country to another

and also because of the actual size of the representative national

samples in this survey, the data for answers on membership of consumerorganizations which appear below should be viewed with the greatest

caution.

In the Community as a whole about 2% of the sample - hence, after

all, a proportion representative of about four million people - claimed

membership of a consumer protection organization.

There was great variation between countries:

LuxembourgNetherlands

BelgiumUnited Kingdom(1)

FranceDenmark

Ireland

Italy

(1) Great Britain: 2.9%, Northern Ireland: 0.7%.

- 95-

We would point out once more that these results indicate possiblerelative magnitudes, which would need to be confirmed or refuted byrepeated sampling or by using samples two or three times the size ofthose in our survey. The result for Luxembourg is the least reliable,because there were only 300 respondents; however, the results for theUnited Kingdom and the countries further down the list are below thethreshold of statistical significance.

Broadly speaking, membership of a consumer protection organizationrose in line with level of education and correlated still more closelywith income level. Accordingly, the disadvantaged consumers most inneed of information and protection least frequently belong to a consumerorganization.

(See Table 39)

- 97-

Is the poorly representative nature of the consumer protectionorganizations, in terms of the number of members, attributable to the

obstacle of subscription? This point was put to the respondents inthe form of reference to payment of a fee of 7 dollars a year to belongto an organization or to subscribe to its publication(1),

Overall, 15% of the respondents in the Community as a whole said

they would "definitely" agree to pay that fee and 32% said they would"perhaps" agree. The consumer protection organizations would therefore

seem to have a sizeable reserve of potential members by comparison withtheir present membership.

But again, interest was greatest among the best-off people and most

of all the more educated people, among whom willingness to pay the feewas most often found.

After the people of Luxembourg, the French most frequently expresseddefinite willingness (27%), followed by the Dutch (21%) and then,

surprisingly, the Italians (17%) Hence it would appear that even in

countries where consumer organizations are not flourishing quite a largeproportion of the public would be prepared to support their endeavours:

this proportion is mainly to be found among young women (15 to 39 years)and the better-educated.

(See Tables 40 and 4l)

(1) The fee of 7 dollars was chosen by agreement with the organizationsconsulted. In the questionnaires the equivalent amounts mentionedwere 300 Belgian francs, 50 Danish kroner, 18 Deutschmarks ,30 French francs, 4800 Italian lire, 18 Dutch guilders and £3,50sterling.

- 98-

Table 40

WILLINGNESS TO BECOME A MEMBER OF A CONSUMER PROTECTION ORGANIZATION

BY SEX, AGE. NUMBER OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSEHOLD. LEVEL OF EDUCATION

AND FAMILY INCOME


- 99-

Table 41

WILLINGNESS TO BECOME A MEMBER OF A CONSUMER PROTECTION ORGANIZATION

(By country)(1 )

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of answerssaying "definitely".

(2) Answers saying "definitely": Great Britain 7%, Northern Ireland 10%.

(3) Weighted mean.

- 100 -

3. GENERAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ORGANIZATIONS

Since "organizations whose specific aim is to inform and defendthe consumer" were little known or even unknown to more than half thesample in most of the countries, only 6% of the overall sample for the

Community as a whole regarded them as "very effective" and 27% of theoverall sample judged them to be "fairly effective". Hence, the

overall judgment is fairly unfavourable but reflects the fact that the

public is inadequately informed rather than signifying a genuinely poor

opinion: 58% of the respondents (and eight in ten of those who repliedto the question) expressed a qualified judgment, their answers being

equally divided between "fairly effective" and "not very effective".

The uncertainty of the public was also demonstrated by the high percentage

of don't know/no reply (27%).

This assessment of the organizations was fairly widespread and one

finds no significant differences according to social category.

The Netherlands stood out very clearly as the country where the

organizations were most frequently judged to be ''very effective" (16%).

Denmark came second (9%. Ireland, France and Italy came at the bottom

of the list for this view(1). (See Table 42)

In sum, if one takes into consideration only those people who gave

an opinion one way or the other, one finds that there was a balance infavour in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, the United Kingdom and

Luxembourg:

(1) However, 49% of the Dutch respondents and 43% of the Belgianrespondents did not answer the question.

- 102 -

4. INFLUENCE OF THE ORGANIZATIONS OVER GOVERNMENT POLICIES

Just as much uncertainty or poor opinion was reflected in theanswers to the question dealing with the influence of consumer protection

(1 )organizations over government policies".

In the Community as a whole, only 2% of the respondents attributed"very powerful" influence to these organizations and 12% a "considerableinfluence." 27% of the overall sample did not give an opinion.

Again judgments were evenly distributed in the overall sample,irrespective of sex, age, level of education or income level.

Differences from one country to another were also small: 1 to 3%of the respondents - a statistically negligible proportion - attributed"very powerful" influence to the organizations and 9 to 18% assessed theinfluence as "considerable". (.See Table 43)

On attempting - purely for guidance - to find a relative order ofthe countries according to the strength of opinion among people whoattributed any influence to the organizations, the following table emerges:

Index number for influence(2)NetherlandsBelgiumLuxembourgFranceItalyMean for the CommunityDenmarkFederal Republic of GermanyUnited Kingdom(3)Ireland

(1) The criteria involved here are probably on a different plane fromthose for the preceding question. Influence can depend on boththe agency exerting it and the body on which it is exerted. Inother words, what is being measured here is probably an opinionderiving for each country from a combination of assessment of theconsumer organizations and an assessment of the government.

- 102 continued

(2) "Very powerful influence" = 3, "considerable influence" = 2,"little influence" = 1, "hardly any influence" = 0. Themidpoint is 1.5.

(5) From: Great Britain 0.79 and Northern Ireland 0.50.

- 103 -

Table 43

INFLUENCE OF CONSUMER ORGANIZATIONS

ON GOVERNMENT POLICIES

(By country)(1)

(1 ) The countries are listed in descending order of the values obtained fromthe index numbers: "powerful influence'' = 3, ''hardly any influence" = 0.

(2) ..Weighted mean.

- 104-

VIII

ATTITUDES TO PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTS

In most of the Member States of the Community there are private-enterprise or officially sponsored consumer protection organizations

which report to their members (or to readers of their publications)the results of "product comparison tests", i.e. laboratory tests of

the measurable qualities of various consumer goods or household durableson sale to the public.

Producers concerned often dispute the results of the tests,

challenging the independence of an organization or the methods whichit has employed.

It was decided that important considerations for this survey were

to try to find out whether or not the public was well-informed as to

the existence of these tests, how much it trusted them and whether ornot the results published influenced buying habits.

Hence the following three questions:

"Have you ever heard of laboratory tests carried out to compare

the price and quality of various brands of goods on sale to thepublic?"

IF YES ; "To what extent do you think that the organizations which

carry out these product comparison tests and publish their resultscan be trusted?"

"Speaking for yourself and your family, would you say that because

of your knowledge of the results of such tests on any productsyou have changed your buying habits?" IF YES: "Has thishappened ;

- once,

- two or three times,- more often?"

- 105 -

1. KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTS AND TRUST OF THEIR RESULTS

In the Community as a whole more people knew of the existence ofproduct comparison tests than of consumer organizations: 52% of therespondents had heard of the former and 44% had heard of the latter.

More men than women and more people in towns than in villages hadheard of these tests but, once again, level of education, and still morethe income level, were the most decisive factors.

German, Dutch and Danish respondents were the best informed on thissubject, with more than six people in ten aware of the tests. Thencame the French, the British, the Luxembourgers and the Belgians, andlowest in the order the Italians and the Irish.

We thus find much the same relative position of the countries forthe percentage of people who had heard of product comparison tests asfor the percentage of people who knew of consumer organizations. Apartfrom Luxembourg, where the sample was less reliable than for the othercountries, the Dutch, Germans and Danish emerged clearly as the best-informedin both cases and the Belgians, the Italians and the Irish were the least

(1)informed' '.

By contrast with the position as to confidence in consumerorganizations which has been pointed out, the great majority of peoplewho had heard of product comparison tests trusted the results.

The better-educated people (average and high levels of education)and those in the higher income groups were more inclined to trust thetests. (See Tables 44 and 45)

By country, the index number for trust of product comparison testsput the people of Luxembourg and France at the top of the list and Italiansat the bottom(2).

(1) In both cases people living in Northern Ireland were much less informedthan the people of Great Britain: 35% of the respondents had heard ofthe tests, compared with 49%.

105 continued

(2) It should be pointed out that in the Federal Republic of Germany,where 65% of the respondents had heard of the tests, the degreeof trust was rather lower than the mean for the Community.

- 106-

Table 44

INDEX NUMBERS FOR TRUST OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTS ;

BREAKDOWN BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND OF FAMILY INCOME(1)


Level of education:

- low 3.25

- average 3.30

- high 3.31

Family income group:

- low 3 . 1 9

- lower middle 3.26

- upper middle 3.31

- high 3.34

(1) Index numbers, from people who had heard of produit comparison tests,calculated by assigning to the percentages of answers the coefficients 4("can be trusted to a considerable extent"), 3 ("can be trusted to someextent"), 2 ("cannot really be trusted") or 1 ("cannot be trusted at all").Index numbers of 2.5 and above denote trust. See Table 45 for percentages,

- 107-

Table 45

KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTSAND TRUST OF THEIR RESULTS


- 108

Table 46

INDEX NUMBERS FOR TRUST OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTS(1)(By country)

Luxembourg 3.31

France 3.47

Netherlands 3.44

Denmark 3.40

Belgium 3.38

Ireland 3.36

United Kingdom 3.30

Mean for the Community 5.28

Federal Republic of Germany 3.25

Italy 2.95

(1) For method of calculating the index numbers see Note (1) belowTable 44 and for the percentages from which the index numbershave been calculated see the data in Table 47.

- 109-

Table 4?

KNOWLEDGE OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTS

AMD TRUST OF THEIR RESULTS

(By country)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of "yes" repliesto "have you hard of the tests?"

(2) Weighted mean.

- 110-

2. INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE OF THE RESULTS OF TESTS ON BUYING HABITS

Among people who had heard of product comparison tests (52% of theoverall sample), 13% said that knowledge of results had changed their

buying habits "once", 23% said "two or three times" and 17% said "moreoften". Overall, therefore, slightly more than half of the people whohad heard of the tests said that their buying habits had been changed.

As might be expected, inclination to change buying habits after

noting the results of tests was found to be influenced by income and bylevel of education. This is easily seen by looking at index numbers

calculated from frequency of change in buying habits.

(See Table 48)

The order of countries (Table 49) tor at least one change in buyinghabits prompted by the results of product comparison tests is the same

as in Table 4?. This confirms that the same factors - level of educationand income level - determine awareness of such tests ("heard of them")and inclination to act on the test results ("have changed buying habits").

In the matter of frequency of change of habits (changed ''once",

"two or three times", etc), as measured by our "sensitivity index" forthe results of tests, the differences from one country to another are notvery meaningful: consumers in the Federal Republic of Germany and inBelgium who knew of the existence of such tests seemed to be the peoplemost "sensitive" to the results of tests and those in Ireland the least

"sensitive."

- I l l -

Table 48

INFLUENCE OF THE RESULTS OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTSON BUYING HABITS

BREAKDOWN BY SEX. BY LEVEL OF EDUCATION AND BY FAMILY INCOME(1)(Community as a whole)

(1) The figures in brackets show the percentages of respondents who had heard ofproduct comparison tests.

(2) Index numbers, from people who had heard of the tests, calculated by assigningto the percentages the coefficients 1 ("once"), 2 ("two or three times") or3 ("more often"). The midpoint is therefore 2.0.

- 112-

Table 49

INFLUENCE OF THE RESULTS OF PRODUCT COMPARISON TESTSON BUYING HABITS

(By country)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of frequency of "yes" replies to"have you heard of the tests?" The percentages in brackets show the frequencyof that reply.

(2) Index number, from respondents who had heard of the tests, calculated by assigningto the percentages the coefficients 1 ("once"), 2 ("two or three times") or3 ("more often"),

(5) Index number for Great Britain: 1.90; for Northern Ireland: 1.29.(4) Weighted mean.

- 113-

IX

THE CONSUMER AND PUBLIC AUTHORITIES

'What do consumers want the public authorities to do for them?Most of the national governments and some of the regional or localpublic authorities are making some arrangements to inform and protectconsumers. These arrangements take various forms: setting up officialbodies, grants to private organizations, television space (in so far asgovernments have any "control" over broadcasting), etc. Publicauthorities may also apply prohibitive measures, for example throughstatutes or exercise of the legal system to prevent certain "unfairadvertising" practices or prevent the balance of power always being infavour of producers, traders, advertisers and sales promotions.

To try to find out the wishes of the public in this sphere, aquestion expressing ideas in terms that could easily be understoodwas asked:

"Which of the following three strikes you as being the mostimportant?

A. Granting or increasing public subsidies to consumer informationand defence organizations.

B. Publication in newspapers of the results of tests on the priceand quality of goods, with the name of the manufacturers.

C. Setting up an information and advice centre to deal withconsumers' complaints in each town or district.

In the overall sample for the Community only 11% of the respondentsfailed to reply to the question; therefore the public would seem to take

- 114-

keen interest in these aspects of consumer affairs. Four people inten (41%) chose the setting up of information and advice centres andanother four people in ten (40%) opted for publication in newspapers

of the results of product comparison tests. But only 8% of therespondents gave as their first choice the granting (or increasing)of public subsidies to consumer organizations.

Very little variation according to sex or age appears but the level

of formal education and family income were important variables: the

best-educated people (and those with highest incomes) seemed to favour

slightly more frequently the publication in newspapers of the resultsof tests.

However, despite slight differences in priority, the wishes of thepublic are clear: eight people in ten from the Community as a whole,expressed a desire for wide (or wider) publication of the results ofproduct comparison tests or for the setting up of (easily accessible)centres where consumers can receive guidance, report complaints - and

(perhaps) have note taken of what they say.

(See Table 50)

The differences from one country to another were greatest for

Item C (information and advice centres) than for the other two items.These variations were due pa r t ly to the proportion of people in nationalsamples who did not answer the question: 21 to 24% in Belgium, theNetherlands and Denmark, compared with 6 to 13% in the other countries.Therefore it is appropriate to take into consideration not only the viewsobtained from the overall sample but also those of people who expressed

a choice. Tables 51 and 52 give the two sets of data.

Naturally, the answers were definitely influenced by whether or not

measures mentioned already existed in each respondent's country. Butthat influence could operate in either direction: for example, it isconceivable that in a country where the results of product comparisontests are widely published (Denmark) or in a country where consumerinformation centres exist (United Kingdom, Netherlands), the public might

- 1 1 5 -

less frequently select a form of action to which it is accustomed; on

the other hand, the public might equally well choose that form of action

more frequently because of being accustomed to it.

In fact, one finds that the great majority of Danes who gave an

answer (see Table 52) picked publication in newspapers of the results

of tests. On the other hand, we now know that for the people of the

Republic of Ireland and of Italy, the amount of information and protection

provided is not of the highest order - and the most frequent choice in

those countries was the setting up of local information centres, whichwould thus make information readily accessible to the public.

It seems reasonable to deduce that the publication of the resultsof tests is less strongly desired in countries where this form of action

is unfamiliar to most of the people, whereas the setting up of information

and advice centres finds favour with the mass of the public in countries

where consumers are just becoming aware of general consumer problems.

Evidence in support of this hypothesis is found on studying the data

for three countries where a clear choice was obtained from the public,

either for publication of the results of tests (Denmark) or for the

setting up of information centres (Ireland and Italy) and noting howrelative preference for one or other of those two options is influenced

by level of education or by family income:

- 1 1 6 -

In Denmark the more popular of these two choices ("publication ofthe results of comparative tests'') was selected more frequently thanthe other as respondents' education and, especially, income came higherup the scale.

By contrast, in Ireland and in Italy the more popular of these twochoices ("setting up information centres") was selected rather less

frequently than the other as respondents' level of education rose andconsiderably less frequently with higher income.

The indications are that measures in the form of publication ofthe results of the tests are of greater interest to better educated andmore prosperous sections of the public, whereas "ordinary people" aremore inclined to prefer the setting up of information centres.

Hence, in order to be effective a consumer information and protectionpolicy should vary the measures employed, in order to cater for differing

sections of the public.

- 1 1 8 -

Table 51

CONSUMERS' WISHES AS TO ARRANGEMENTSFOR THEIR INFORMATION AND PROTECTION

(By country, as percentage of respondents)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in ascending order of percentage of respondents whogave no reply.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 119 -

Table 52

CONSUMERS' WISHES AS TO OFFICIAL MEASURES

FOR THEIR INFORMATION AND PROTECTION(By country, as percentage of respondents who gave a reply)(1)

(1) The countries are listed in ascending order of percentage of respondentswho gave no reply.

(2) Weighted mean.

- 120-

X

THE CONSUMER AND POLITICAL PARTIES

This report has kept repeating the point that consumers feel a

need for more information and better protection. Consumers are also

citizens and voters: do they demand from political parties the help

for the consumer that they want from society? Do they at least feelthat political parties take heed of consumers and protect them?

Put in these terms, an immense task is involved; it means nothing

less than the adaptation of traditional democracy to modern life.

Obviously the survey under reference did not propose to cope with such

a vast subject but it was thought fit to take a preliminary sounding

of the degree of confidence in political parties felt by the consumers

of each country and more particularly by those consumers with some

political feeling, namely those who felt affinities with any one partyrather than the others:

"Do you feel affinities with any particular political party? If

so, do you feel yourself very involved with this party, fairly

involved, or merely a sympathizer?"

"On the whole, do you feel that this party defends people like

you, as consumers, very well, fairly well, or only to a smalldegree?"

Overall, about six people in ten in the area of the Community felt

affinities with any one political party. Of these people 15% felt very

involved with that party, 28% felt fairly involved and 57% said they were

merely sympathizers.

Despite the differing political regimes and political traditions,

the variations from one country to another were small. Only in Belgium

and, still more, in Ireland was there a majority of the sample which did

not feel affinities to any particular political party(1).

(1) It may be noted that in Belgium relatively strong attachment to aparty was expressed among those people who said they felt affinities.

- 121 -

(See Table 53)

Among people who felt affinities with any particular party onlyone person in ten in the overall sample for the Community consideredthat the party concerned defended the general consumer public "verywell"; five in ten answered "fairly well" and three in ten said "onlyto a small degree". Thus, in this respect there is not much confidencein political parties.

Index numbers for confidence in parties reveals that among thosepeople who feel affinities with any one political party, Danes weremost frequently inclined to feel confidence in the party of their choiceto defend consumers.

(See Table 54)

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of f requency of positive repliesto "feel affinities with any particular political party".

(2) Index numbers calculated by assigning the coefficient 3, 2 or 1 to the percentagesof replies "very involved", "fairly involved'' or "merely sympathizer".

(5) Weighted mean.

* translator's note: sic

(1) As in the preceding table, the consumers are listed according to the proportion ofrespondents who said they felt affinities to a party; that percentage is repeatedhere in brackets.

(2) "Very well: coefficient 3; "fairly well": coefficient 2; ''only to a small degree":coefficient 1.

(3) Weighted mean.

* translator's note: sic

- 124-

It is possible to go deeper into the matter. Since one can know,from the answers to these questions for identification data which arestandard practice in any survey, the political parties of choice for therespondents, i.e. the party for which they would vote if parliamentaryelections were to take place now, one can calculate, as a rough guideonly, the degree of confidence in consumer protection by each party that

(1)is felt among those who would vote for it(1).

(See Table 55)

The differences in scores between parties in any one country aregreater than the differences between national mean scores. Withincountries these differences are greater in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlandsand France than in the other countries. Broadly speaking, in thismatter there is greater confidence in the party of their choice amongpeople whose political preference lies to the extreme left or the leftthan among people of other political inclinations.

(1) ..e would emphasize that this is a rough guide only. Thiscombination of questions probably elicited social and politicalattitudes characteristic of each set of voters and each politicalregime rather than the images of the different parties in thesphere of consumer protection. Moreover, on the basis of thesize of each representative national sample, caution is requiredin commenting and drawing conclusions.

T a b l e 55

I N D E X NUMBERS FOR C O N F I D E N C E I N CONSUMER PROTECTION ON THE PARTOF THE PARTY W I T H W H I C H RESPONDENTS FELT MOST A F F I N I T I E S

(By country, according to p o l i t i c a l party)

(1) For method of calculating this index number see note beneath Table 54. The countries are listed from leftto right in descending order of percentages of replies expressing "affinities with any particular party".The number of such replies is given in brackets alongside each index score. Scores calculated from fewerthan 30 cases are not statistically significant.

- 127-

XI

THE CONSUMES AMD THE COMMON MARKET

A set of questions on matters of special interest to the publicand on people's attitudes to the Common Market is contained in the"Euro-Barometer" opinion poll which the European Commission has arrangedto have carried out at six-monthly intervals. The survey with whichthe present report is concerned included a question on consumers'impressions in connexion with some of the most important aspects ofthe Common Market.

1. CONSUMER PROTECTION:

AN AREA ATTRACTING INCREASING INTEREST

"The nine countries_of the European Economic Community - theCommon Market - are together dealing with a number of sharedproblems. Here is a list of them (SHOW CARD). Could youtell me, for each of these problems, if it appears veryimportant to you, important, of little importance, or notat all important?"(1)

The repetition of this question every six months since autumn1974 enables change in the importance attributed to each matter tobe measured(2).

The problem regarded by respondents as by far the most importantwas "a common fight against rising prices", which was "very important"to seven people in ten, but "protecting nature and fighting pollution"came a close second and "protection of consumers" was "very important"to five people in ten.

(1) Ten problems were presented in the list, including "Protection ofconsumers against fraudulent selling and misleading advertising."

(2) Fur further details see Euro-Barometer No. 4, December 1975..

- 128-

Four problems have gradually become more important to people:

a. co-ordinating the social policies of the Member States in thefields of employment and vocational training, which rose fromseventh place in October-November 1974 to sixth place in May1975 and fifth place in October-November 1975;

b. protection of consumers against fraudulent selling and misleadingadvertising, which rose from fourth place in 1974 to third placefrom May 1975 onwards;

c. protecting nature and fighting pollution, which rose from thirdplace in 1974 to second place from May 1975 onwards;

d. reducing the differences between developed regions and lessdeveloped regions of the Member States, which has not changedits place but has obtained a higher score.

The greater importance of the first of these four items probablyreflects the change in the social and economic situations and above allincreased unemployment, or fear of increase in unemployment.

The other three items correspond to various aspects of aspirationsto better quality of life and perhaps a new form of society.

Table 56 gives the placings since autumn 1974 of the four problemsregarded as the most important, according to their score for importancecalculated by means of index numbers.

Table 36

MOVEMENT. ACCORDING TO SCORE FOR IMPORTANCE,IN THE PLACINGS OF THE MATTERS ATTRACTING MOST INTEREST(1)


- 129-

The overall result for the Community was that consumer protectionwas regarded as a "very important" or "important" problem by 77% ofrespondents in autumn 1975, compared with 73% in autumn 1974.

The matter was seen as important in all the countries, with nogreat variations from one country to another, except that the peopleof the Republic of Ireland attached appreciably more importance to itthan did the people of the other countries.

(See Table 57)

- 130-

Table 57

IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO CONSUMES PROTECTION(By country)(1)

( 1 ) The countries are listed according to the degree of importance attached to consumerprotection, i.e. in descending order of index value at Oct.-Nov. 1975.

(2) Northern Ireland not included in Oct.-Nov. 1974.

(3) Weighted mean.

- 132-

2. THE COMMON MARKET: A GOOD THING

"Generally speaking, do you think that (for your country)

membership of the European Community (Common Market) isa good thing, a bad thing, or neither good nor bad?"

Despite social and economic difficulties of all kinds experienced

by the European Community since the end of 1973, Rot only were theattitudes of individuals six to one in favour of the Common Market butalso the number of favourable attitudes had tended to increase in most

of the countries, especially in the United Kingdom and the Republic of

Ireland(1).

The shifts reflected in Table 58 demonstrate growing attachment ofthe great majority of consumers to the Common Market, which seems tohave become accepted as an established system and, except in Denmark,

"a good thing", rather than bad. In view of the campaigns which took

place in some countries, either in 1955-57 or in 1971-72, to protectconsumers against effects of the Common Market that were feared, public

opinion has come a long way.

In the overall sample, men expressed a favourable opinion rathermore frequently than women did. There was a slightly lower proportion

of replies in favour among the youngest men and the oldest women but the

most important variable was the respondent's level of education(2).

(1) In Denmark there had been a considerable drop in the percentage ofpeople in favour but the survey reported here showed that the situationhad almost returned to the initial level (September 1973), i.e. theresults in the opinion poll immediately after that country enteredthe Community.

(2) For further details see "'.Women and Men in the European Community:comparison of attitudes to some problems of society", EuropeanCommission, Brussels, December 1975, PP.' 156-l6l. From that reportit may be noted, in particular, that the combined influence of ageand sex seemed to operate in one way in the six original states ofthe Community and in another in the three new Member States. In"the six", older women (55 years and over) were markedly less infavour than younger women, whereas on the whole older men wereslightly more in favour. But in "the three", older people, especiallymen, were markedly more in favour than younger people. The

132 continued

explanation suggested ie that a favourable attitude in women isinfluenced towards the norm by more education, hence the morefavourable attitude among younger women, but such influencedoubtless requires fairly long experience of the Community.

133 continued -

France

Sept. 1975May 1974Oct.-Nov. 1974May 1975Oc t.-Nov. 1975

Good thing

6168636467

Bad thing

55644

Neither goodnor bad

2220222524

Don't know/no reply

127975

Total

100100100100100

- 134-

Continued

- 134 continued -

(1) The countries are listed according to descending order of frequencyof the positive reply ("good thing") at Oct.-Nov. 1975.

(2) Northern Ireland omitted for 1975 and 1974.

(5) Weighted mean.

- 133-

3. IMAGE OF THE COMMON MARKET IN CERTAIN RESPECTS

What, then, are people's impressions of the Common Market? Onemight suppose that, according to country and social category, differentsections of the public might be more sensitive to some particular aspect,for example export facilities for industrial or agricultural products,promotion of the industrial development of Member States, or enablingconsumers to have a wider range of products and holding back priceincreases.

"Here are some opinions about the Common Market. In each caseI would like to know if you agree entirely, agree on the whole,disagree on the whole, disagree entirely or if you have no

opinion?"

According to the overall data for the Community, the predominantimpression of the Common Market was of enabling consumers to have awider range of products: a mean of nearly seven people in ten (67%)took this view, and Germans most of all (85%). It may be noted thatone in three Belgians did not express any attitude in this connexion.

The next most widespread opinion, with which six out of ten peopleagreed (58%), was that "the Common Market facilitates exports ofindustrial goods and boosts national production". Many more peoplegave this opinion in Luxembourg (82%) than elsewhere, and Germans camenext (73%). In all countries there was more agreement than disagreementwith this proposition, but the proportion of people with "no opinion"was between 22 and 25% in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlandsand was higher than 30% in Belgium.

Only a little less agreement was elicited by the proposition that"the Common Market promotes industrial_development in this country" (58%).

The replies from the various countries to the question on facilitatingexports and the question on promoting the nation's industry were fairly

similar(2).

(1) The questions were lettered in serial order (see Table 59).(2) Promotion of industrial development came first in the set of questions;

this question may have ''contaminated" the next: exports of industrialgoods.

- 136 -

In fourth place came the idea that ''the Common Market makes iteasier for the country to export its agricultural products" (47%).The highest percentages of agreement were found in the republic ofIreland and in Luxembourg(1). Opinion was evenly divided in Italyand in the United Kingdom but elsewhere the majority of people expressedagreement. More than one in three of the Danes and Belgians and onein four of the Dutch and British did not reply on this point.

In fifth and last place, the opinion that 'the Common Market helpsto hold price increases back by encouraging competition" obtained only38% of agreement, with 44% of disagreement. Of those respondents whoreplied, the majority agreed in the Federal republic of Germany,Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium and disagreed in the

other countries, above all in the United Kingdom.

About one in three of the Belgians, Danes and Dutch and about onein four Luxembourgers did not reply on this point.

(See Table 59)

(1) The attitude of the Italians was probably explained by the disputewith France about exports of wine.

- 137 continued -

- 138 -

Continuation

- 138 continued -

(1) The countries are listed in descending order of positive answers ("agreeentirely" or "agree on the whole ' ' ) .

(2) weighted mean.

- 140-

How were the impressions of the Common Market in these two respectsdistributed in relation to consumer factors? Variations withincountries were much smaller than variations from one country to another;

moreover, they were brought about m a i n l y by the proportion of non-response,

In the overall result for the Community, men agreed slightly moreoften than women with the idea that the Common Market enabled consumersto have a wider range of products (69% compared with 65%) and held backprice increases (43% compared with 35%); but if non-response is omitted,then the score for women was just a little higher than that for men forthe first of these items and slightly lower than that for men for thesecond.

Age had scarcely any influence in connexion with the first of thesetwo items, still less if non-response is set aside. People under 40years old, especially women, had a less favourable opinion regardingprices than did older people.

On the whole, people with above-average education or income moreoften agreed with each of these two propositions, thus showing a morefavourable attitude to the Common Market; but again if non-response isexcluded, variations almost disappear.

(See Table 61)

(1) Index number calculated by assigning the coefficient 4, 3, 2 or 1 -to thepercentages for the denrée of agreement or disagreement and correlating:the total with the percentage of definite responses.

- 143 -

We will confine ourselves here to a broad outline of the findings

for the individual countries, which - with a few small variations -

show a large measure of like judgment within each country.

1 ) Wider range of products for consumers

In almost all the countries, but especially in Belgium and the

Netherlands, women were less inclined than men to state an opinion.

In the Netherlands those women who did so tended, on the whole, to

give a more adverse judgment.

The correlation with age was slightly closer among women than

among men but not always in the same direction: the percentage of

agreement with the proposition decreased as the age group became

higher, especially among women, in the Netherlands and in Belgium

but increased in Denmark, above all among men.

More education tended to produce agreement with the proposition,

especially in Belgium and the Netherlands not only did more of the

better educated people reply on this point but more of them were in

favour of the Common Market. In Denmark the influence of education

was small but there the people with most education tended less

frequently to reply and slightly less frequently to agree with the

proposition.

Income level had similar effect to that of education, i.e. higher

income resulted in a more favourable opinion in Belgium, the Netherlands,France, the Republic of Ireland and even, to a lesser degree, in Denmark,

2) Restraint of price increases

In almost all the countries, especially in the Netherlands, fewer

women than men agreed with this idea.

People over 40 years old, especially men, slightly more often

agreed with the proposition. The influence of age was most marked

in Denmark and in France, with greater age again tending to produce

agreement.

- 144-

Ascending family income tended to exert greater influence thandid rise in the level of education towards the notion that the CommonMarket helps to hold price increases back by encouraging competition.This was above all the case in Belgium.

To sum up, even among its opponents the Common Market was regardedby most people in the EEC area as providing, or potentially providing,consumers with a wider range of products. However, this good imageis somewhat marred, especially in the new Member States,by the people'sanxiety about rising prices, even though, objectively speaking, the

Common Market is not to blame for inflation.

- 145-

Part Two

EUROPEAN CONSUMES TYPOLOGY

- 146

METHOD OF ANALYSIS

Twenty-eight questions on consumer attitudes and behaviour wereput to about 9500 respondents from the nine Community Member States.

Part One presents the findings from study of the replies to eachof these questions from overall samples, or from categories of

respondents - men, women, young people, older people, etc. It was

appropriate to try to find out, in addition, which questions were most

helpful or informative for the purpose of classifying the respondentsin a limited number of statistically discernible types possessing the

maximum of similarity between individuals of any one type, with themaximum of differentiation between types.

The procedure was as follows:

1) Study the links between the 57 variables obtained from the 28

questions, i.e. construct a correlation matrix - a square tablecontaining the correlation coefficients of each variable with each of

(1)the other variables .

2) Reduce the number of variables to be used by eliminating thosetoo similar to others - hence superfluous - and those too far apart

from the rest of the set - hence of minor importance.

The principle for reducing the variables was as follows:

a) Selection at any given stage of the variable likely to supplymost information on all the other variables not yet selected.The most useful variable in the case under reference was negativereply to the question: "Do you feel that consumers like you havesufficient information when shopping for food?" That variable

(1) One question can contain several variables, for example the question:"Can you remember ... buying something with which you were not whollysatisfied ...?" If yes; "Can you remember what kind of goods wereinvolved: fresh foodstuffs, tinned or frozen food, medicines, etc..?"This question has 11 dichotomies variables, i.e. "yes''or "no".

- 147-

alone enabled 4.2% of the total variation to be explained, which

was a relatively large proportion when there were 57 variables.

b) By an iteration process the computer identified the variables

which supplied the greatest amount of marginal information.

In all, it was found that the twenty most informative variables

selected "explained" 50.7% of variation in the whole set of data.

These twenty variables were retained for further analysis of the

data, plus one variable which was not selected by automatic

processing because of the small number of questions dealing with

advertising but was not statistically negligible and was of interest

for the purpose of the study, namely the question on agreement or

disagreement with the proposition that "advertising provides

consumers with useful information". Thus, the twenty-one

variables selected "explained" 52.3% of variation in the whole

set of data.

3) Work out types of consumers, according to the replies from each

respondent in relation to the 21 variables selected as meaningful.

- 148 -

II

RESULTS OF TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Sight types were finally selected as necessary and sufficient.

Details of the characteristics making up each type are given below.

The components involved were, firstly, the characteristics for the type

which were shown by a breakdown of the sample performed on the basis of

the 21 active variables and, secondly, the other main distinguishing

features of the type(1).

Type I: "the indifferent"(2)

This group constituted 8% of the overall sample (after weighting to

make the sampling fractions representative of the population aged 15

years and over in the nine countries of the Community).

It is characterized by a high proportion of non-response to a

majority of the questions and, among people assignable to this group,

63% were women, 50% were people aged 50 years or over and 70% were people

with little formal education; it was also the group containing the

highest numbers of people with low income and of people living in rural

areas. Individuals of this type considered that the purpose of the

survey had no relevance for them and they might well feel that their

attitude to most social and political matters 'doesn't make any difference''

These are ''non-leaders" - and, no doubt, usually non-voters'-".

(1) Four tables at the end of this section summarize all the resultsbased on types of consumers:a. breakdown for each of the types by personal characteristics

of the respondents (Table 62);b. breakdown according to some socio-political and socio-religious

characteristics of the respondents (Table 63);c. breakdown in each national sample (Table 64);d. characteristic answers for each of the types (Table 65).

(2) The name given to each type according to its most prominentcharacteristics is, of course, more or less arbitrary; justificationof the names provided solely by their reflection of the findings andby the working hypotheses which they suggest.

- 148 continued -

(3) For example, the following is a comparison of non-response ratesin Type I and in the overall sample:

non-response

Type I Overall

- Do you feel that consumers like youhave sufficient information:

- to make major purchases?- when shopping for food?

149-

(3) continued from p. 148:

- Does advertising often mislead consumersas to the quality of products?

- Are brands which are heavily advertisedmore expensive or less expensive?

- Do you feel that the organizationsinvolved in informing and defending theconsumer are effective?

- Do you think that these organizationshave any influence over governmentpolicies?

- Do you think that the following informationmedia provide good, poor or no informationat all for consumers:

. daily newspapers?

. magazines and periodicals?

. radio?

. television?

- 150 -

This group is particularly large in Belgium (20% of the sample inthat country).

Type II: "careless shoppers"

8.5% of the overall sample for the EEC came into this group. Themain characteristic was the relatively low level of positive answers tothe set of questions on behaviour when shopping for food: checking thechange, the final bill, the unit price, indications on the label or theamount weighed. High proportions of this group were men (64%) andfairly young people. No correlation with the level of family incomewas found but fewer of these people than in other groups considered thatprices had risen faster than their income and fewer expressed the intentionof "tightening their belt." In addition, most of these people are notmuch involved in politics and do not go to religious services or findreligion important to them.

Perhaps the young men in this group shop only for items which arenot included in the household shopping, perhaps, too, money does nothave the same meaning for them as for their elders, Whatever the reasonsare, these "careless shoppers" seem to be a natural target for advertisersand traders ... (1).

Type III: "sensible people"

This section of the public (8.5% of the total) regarded itself aswell-informed, both for making major purchases and to shop for food.For the most part, the attitude to advertising was rather uncritical:in this group there was least agreement with the opinion that advertisingoften misleads people as to the quality of products.

(1) By comparison with the overall population (see page 37), the meanscores of the Type II people in the index numbers for behaviour asa purchaser were as follows:

Checked: - the change given- the final bill- the label- the unit price- the amount weighed

Mean score

- 151 -

The proportion of women (58%) was slightly higher than in theoverall population but people aged 50 or over and people with littleformal education predominated. This group contained the people mostsatisfied with their present life, most attached to their religion andmost often attending religious services.

Socially, several traits of this group bring it close to the"indifférents'', but the levels of awareness, knowledge and participationare distinctly higher. These people believe what they read in thenewspapers or what they hear on the radio or television. They arewell adjusted to "the system".

Type IV : ' 'consumers who take an interest' '

This group (9% of the total) is not easily distinguishable in thegeneral population, except that it has rather more women than men (60%women and 40% men). Its main characteristic is that, although people

who fall into the group did not have a critical attitude to advertisingand did not feel short of information, the great majority of them (73%,compared with 48%' in the public as a whole) said that if inflationcontinued they would "get together with other consumers to obtain moreinformation and defend their interests''. Political and religiousfeelings are no stronger among these people than the average for thepublic but they are fairly confident in consumer protection on the partof the political party which they prefer. In favouring the idea ofconsumers getting together they may be rather confused and not veryearnest; however, they certainly do not feel that they already haveplenty of information and they seem to be inclined to obtain greaterknowledge of the rights of consumers. Consumer organizations would bewell advised to take note of the wishes of this group and to pay closeattention to what happens to it.

Type V: "well-informed but independent-minded consumers"

At first sight it is rather surprising to discover such a sizeable

group of people of this type (l9%) . The people who fall into thisgroup consider that they have sufficient information and, in fact, theyhave: more of them than in any of the other groups have heard of consumerorganizations and product comparison tests, also they know about television

- 152-

broadcasts designed for consumers; they think the organizations have

influence and they have a degree of trust in the results of product

tests; they are not highly critical of the part played by advertising

but they are more than averagely inclined to think that it makes goods

more expensive. Are then these people militants? No, because they

have very little inclination to get together with other consumers. Many

of them have an average level of formal education. Satisfaction with

their present life was highest in this group; they had relatively

definite political feelings and trusted the party of their choice to

protect consumers but were not strongly involved with that party.

Except in level of education this segment of the public was

distributed throughout the social categories, but it was the biggest

group of all in the Federal republic of Germany (31%), Denmark and GreatBritain (24% and the Netherlands (20%).

A plausible hypothesis is that this is a section of the public which

asks questions, takes an interest and seeks information, tends towards

progressive attitudes rather than conservative ones, but has little

inclination towards militancy. No doubt it is a section heavily

represented among voters for social democrat parties and in the readership

of consumer organization publications in northern Europe(1).

Type VI: "consumers who are hard to please"

Type VI consumers were almost as numerous (18%) as Type V and were

clearly distinguishable. The great majority of them claimed recentexperience of buying something unsatisfactory or of a mistake or error

as a user of a public service; eight in ten had acted to assert their

rights. They felt better informed than the rest of the public, wereinclined to get together with other consumers and had heard of consumer

organizations (but did not think any too highly of their effectiveness)

and product comparison tests (and claimed to be influenced by these in

their buying habits); they would be fairly willing to become a memberof a consumer organization(2).

(1) It may be seen from Table 65 that 3% of the Type V people were membersof consumer organizations, i.e. more than twice the mean for the

152 continued

other seven types (1.8%). Subject to reservations arisingthe limits of statistical significance of these results, itplausible that the consumer movement is recruiting - or hasuntil the last few years - much of its membership from thisof the population.

(2) About 3% are members.

- 153-

A relatively high proportion of young people came into this group

and it was much larger in Italy than elsewhere (26,.).

Although distributed throughout the income levels, with a slight

bias towards incomes above the average, this '.vas a noticeably dissatisfied

section of the public and the great majority of people of this type

considered that prices had risen faster than their income. These people

had definite political feelings (affinity with a particular political

party and membership of that party) but had no great confidence in parties

as to consumer protection; their religious feelings were scarcely any

stronger than the average. But the most important feature is that these

are the people with the highest score for "leadership", namely political

involvement and the feeling that they influence others.

.hereas Type V seemed to be fairly representative of people in

northern Europe who vote for social democrat parties, Type VI were more

likely to belong to the left-wing opposition, whether or not this is

organized, in the countries with a Catholic tradition.

Types VII and Vlll: ''critics and hostile critics of the system"

These last two types, which together .make up 29% of the population,

were fairly alike. Both came from the section of the public most hostile

to the information media and to advertising. However, it seems

worthwhile to distinguish between them.

Type VII consumers (17%) were especially critical of the information

media and hostile to them, taking the view that they provided poor

information or no information at all for consumers, This group contained

a high proportion of younger people, there were rather more men than

women and the levels of formal education and income tended bo be fairly

high. In some respects this type was fairly close to the one preceding

it in the list ("people who are hard to please"): low level of general

satisfaction, a fair proportion of people in the group were politically

active, and high "leadership" score. This segment of the public would

be rather inclined to belong to a consumer organization; however, its

criticism of or hostility to the system, expressed ch ie f ly in the survey

in attitudes to the main information media, doubtless extended to society

as a whole and ''the system" which those media reflect and perpetuate.

- 154-

Again, this type was found most often in Italy (23%).

Type VIII (12%) was distributed in the same way as the overall samplebetween the sexes, the age groups, the levels of education and of income.Its salient feature was strong hostility to advertising.

This group had an average score for general satisfaction and few ofthese people were politically active (which did not prevent those whofelt affinities with a particular party from feeling fairly involved withit, without much confidence). The group seemed to be poorly integratedinto present-day society and to be almost instinctively oriented towardscriticism and hostility in connexion with a major institution in oursociety, namely advertising. Nor did consumer organizations escape thisradical criticism.

This type was distributed more or less uniformly between thecountries.

Type VII and Type VIII, as well as Type VI ("people who are hard toplease") deserve study in greater depth. After all, the three typestogether make up nearly half the population of the Community (47%),constitute a relatively young segment and are active or potentiallyactive. There are far more of them than the numbers attributed tosections of the public usually called 'anti-establishment". More precisestudy might show that this large minority is fairly heterogeneous in eachcountry and even more so in the Community as a whole.

(1) By comparison with the overall sample (see pages 68 and 71), the meanscores for the people of the different types in the index values forattitude to advertising were as follows:

- 155 —

Even bearing in mind that heterogeneity, as a result of which the

"people who are hard to please", the "critics" and the "hostile critics"

are not necessarily all mobilized at the same time and with the same

objectives, it is of some interest to draw up a comparative table by

countries of the numbers belonging to the Type VI, VII and VIII groups:

(1) The percentages given in brackets beneath the heading of each column show the percentage of the type in the totalweighted sample for the European Community. Some totals add up to less than 100%, because of the omission of''don't know"/no reply.

(2) This column gives the totals in the unweighted national samples.

Table 6$

THE EIGHT TYPES OF CONSUMERS

ANALYSIS OF SOME SOCIO-POLITICAL AMD SOCIO-RELIGIOUS CHARACTERISTICS

(Community as a whole)(1)

(1) and (2) See notes below Table 62.

(3) "The life you lead". "Very satisfied" = 4; "not at all satisfied" = 1.

(4) "Very involved" = 3; "merely sympathizer" = 1.

(5) "Defends people like you": "very well" = 3; "only to a small degree" = 1 .

(6) "Great importance" = 3; "only of little importance" = 1.

(7) "Go to religious services": "several times a week" = 4; "never" = 1.

(8) Worked out by combining the answers to two questions relating to frequency of taking partin political discussions and tendency to persuade other people: the maximum is 4.0 andthe minimum 1.0

Table 64

THE EIGHT TYPES OF CONSUMERS, BY COUNTRY

(Percentage of sample in each country)

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CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this survey are that the bulk of the European publictakes an interest in consumer affairs. Except in the case of Belgium,where the general public showed consistent lack of interest in thequestions put to it on major social issues(1), and the cases of Denmarkand the Netherlands, in respect of which countries the phenomenon ofnon-response deserves special study \ t3 '1, at least nine in ten of therespondents did not fall into the category of "the indifferent". These"indifferent" (8% of the sample population) were for the most part womenor older people, people with little formal education and low income andpeople living in rural areas.

Typological analysis, enabling the overall set of results to becondensed into a few dimensions which facilitate understanding of theobservations and the formulation of hypotheses, has revealed thata section of the public (17%) gives hardly any consideration to thesubject of consumer information and protection. Some of these people -notably young men - may not buy goods without "watching what they spend"but at least they "don't bother"; they are "careless shoppers" ratherheedless of their own best interests and it is reasonable to comment thatthey are natural targets for advertisers and traders. Others of themform the group which we have called "easy-going people": they are neitherfor advertising nor against it; this segment of the public somewhatresembles the "indifferent" but by comparison fits well into the patternof life.

The remainder of the public contains a more complicated range oftypes of consumers, from "preconscious consumers" (consumers who "takean interest" and "have the facts in the back of their minds"), who arenot averse to the idea of involvement but are probably impulsive, to the"well-informed but independent-minded consumers", and to the largeproportion which may be broken down into "complainers","critics" and

"antis".

That range covers the bulk of the population of the nine countriesin the Community (75%)» hence its complexity. It includes the generalpublic in the countries of northern Europe, with their powerful consumer

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(and co-operative) organizations, their large-circulation specialized

(1) This situation is pointed out in the introduction to a specialissue of Res Publica, journal of the Association Belge de SciencePolitique: "Comment les Belges voient leur système socio-politique",1975/4, p. 454.

(2) The difficulty of distinguishing between various meanings ofnon-response is recognized: non-response can mean "I 'm notinterested in that" or "I don't want to answer" or "I 'm not reallyable to work out a reply to this question".

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publications and their high proportions of social democrat voters; butit also includes the peoples of the "Latin" countries, where the wishes

of consumers and the progressive attitudes of the inhabitants findexpression in a wide variety of ways, through the established political

organizations, through a multitude of groups and splinter groups, through

unorganized movements or through opposition to existing organizations.

As if that picture were not complicated enough, it must, of course,

be borne in mind that each country has consumers of each of the types,

but in differing proportions. Therefore, for a more adequate view of

the facts, the study begun in this survey ought to be performed in greater

depth by national research in each country, as it is scarcely possible to

carry out further analyses of this sample without great caution(1).

Two questions - at least - could reasonably be put to us in the light

of these results:

1 ) What aims should the "European institutions pursue in regard to

the provision of information?

2) What development aims should the consumer organizations set

themselves?

We will try to give brief answers to these questions.

Consumer information from the institutions

Several surveys, in particular the "Euro-Barometer" polls carried

out at six-monthly intervals, have shown that "consumer protection" isa subject which is gradually becoming more important to people in the

Community as a whole. Moreover, except in Denmark, the balance of

opinion is favourable to the European Economic Community (or CommonMarket) and is above all favourable in the six original countries and

in the Republic of Ireland. The predominant image of the Common Market

(1) In any case, the survey ought to be repeated, keeping the lessinformative questions to a minimum, so that certain aspects ofthe results of the initial survey can be better explored.

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is that it provides consumers with a wider range of products, and that

image is influenced not only by overall opinion of the Common Market

(see Table 60) but also by attitudes to matters of consumer information

and protection. The view that the Common Market enables consumers to

have a wider range of products was most frequently found among "well-

informed'' consumers (Type V) and on this point the dissatisfied consumers

and the critics and hostile critics of the system scarcely differed from

"sensible people'' and ''consumers who take an interest'':

The situation would therefore seem to call for the launch or

continuation of special information efforts on the theme of the Common

Market and consumers. Such efforts should, of course, lay emphasis

on decisions and results actually achieved rather than on intentions

or proposals and should be aimed at the most receptive, or potentially

most receptive segments of the public - 'consumers who take an interest",

"well-informed but independent-minded consumers" - and also at those

people in various social groups with the highest "leadership" score.

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Indispensable though it is, information provided by the main media(press, radio and television) is proving to be not altogether satisfactory,in that a sizeable minority of the sample expressed distrust of thesemedia, together with some degree of dislike: a mean of about half theoverall sample and as much as three-quarters of the Type VII group, whichcomprised 17% of the respondents.

Accordingly, the consumer information efforts made by the institutionsshould be backed up by the many and various consumer organizations, which

would require constant exchange of information between the institutionsof the EEC and the consumer organizations,

Development aims of the consumer organizations

Consumer information and protection organizations are fairly well

known but most people who have heard of them are vague about them; theirimage is on the whole good but weak; their membership is extremely small

(about 2% of the respondents said they were members); but three thingswould seem to be very much to their advantage:

a. a large reserve of potential members in some countries (France,Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Republic of Ireland);

b. a favourable attitude among younger people (especially amongyoung women) and in the relatively better educated and moreprosperous sections of the public;

c. an instrument well known to the public and regarded as reliable,in the form of the performance of product comparison tests andpublication of the results of such tests.

Above all among the "independent-minded people" but also for thegroup which we have called "people who are hard to please", productcomparison tests would seem to constitute one of the best means, ifnot the best, means of awakening and educating people to protect theirown interests as consumers.

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As regards present membership and potential recruitment, it may beseen as regrettable that support for these organizations comes predominantlyfrom the best-educated people and the higher income groups but this finding,which is in line with previous surveys, is not surprising: the same istrue of most organizations(1).

In the survey reported here, respondents were asked about the numberand kind of associations to which they (or their spouse) paid a subscription.The answers show clear correlation with level of education and even greatercorrelation with income. Membership of one or more associations wastwice as likely in the higher income groups as for people with low income;moreover, the likelihood that a person was an active member and notmerely a subscriber of the association or associations to which he belongedincreased in line with income and education(2).


(1) A great deal of research on "the socially conscious consumer" has beencarried out, especially in the United States. Recent studies include:Hans B. Thorelli, "Concentration of Information Power Among Consumers",Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. VIII (November 1971), pp. 427-432,and W. Thomas Anderson Jr. and William H. Cunningham, "The SociallyConscious Consumer", Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36 (July 1972), pp.23-31The former study shows that ''Norwegian consumers with higher incomeand more education, as well as households subscribing to a consumerinformation magazine, consult a range of product information sourcesmore extensively for a major purchase, habitually consult more generalproduct information sources, and are more aware of the existence andnature of specialized consumer information services than lower-incomeand less educated consumers and mon-subscribing households". Thelatter study demonstrates the incidence of these variables but rightlypoints out that "the socio-psychological variables appear to be moreeffective in differentiating between the high and low sociallyresponsible consumers than were the demographic variables".More recently, H.P. Kuypers, H. Hoefnagels and K. Soete have shownthat members of the "Consumentenbond" in the Netherlands had a higherlevel of education, higher income and felt more involved in what washappening in society than did non-members. See "Consumentenbond:Quo Vadis?", Intermediair, No. 8,' 20 February 1976 (Amsterdam).

(2) This does not, of course, exclude the possibility that other variablesof psycho-social nature may be still more decisive, for example"cognitive mobilization" or reference to a "post-materialist" set ofcriteria, although these, in turn, correlate with level of educationand income. The above-mentioned study by Anderson and Cunninghamindicates the likelihood that such is the case.

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One cannot, of course, predict: whether or not consumer organizations

are likely to become less elitist and more popular as they grow. But

from existing data it is possible to hazard a guess about some changes

which growth might bring.

At present, about 12% of the membership of these organizations seems

to come from Types I, II and III, namely the most conformist people, 35%

from Types IV and V, mainly moderate, and 53%" from Types VI, VII and VIII,

the most critically-minded people. The answers to the question on

willingness to become a member show that if that inclination were put

into effect the proportion of the most critically-minded elements would

be considerably increased:

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Three measures likely to promote the growth of the consumer movementwere put to the respondents. It will have been noted that two of them -setting up local information centres and the publication in newspapers ofthe results of product comparison tests - received the support of 40% ofthe sample, whereas granting public subsidies to the organizations wasthe first choice of only 8% of the sample.

Analysis of the answers according to type of consumer reveals someinteresting points in this connexion:

a) reaction to the idea of public subsidies to the organizationsis scarcely favourable, so that a great deal of explanatorywork would be needed from organizations and authorities whichtook up this possibility.

b) We know that ''consumers who take an interest" and "well-informedbut independent-minded consumers" are sections of the public withfairly moderate attitudes. Most of the former group opted forthe setting up of information centres for the public and most ofthe latter group picked publication of the results of the tests.

c) The proportion of the public composed of ''consumers who are hardto please", "critics' and "hostile critics" did not choose muchdifferently from the rest of the general public, showing a slightpreference for the setting up of local information centres.

(1) See Chapter IX, pp. 113-119.

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In sum, this survey does seem to provide material for study andaction by all concerned in consumer information and protection, whetherin ESC or national official bodies or as executives or campaignersbelonging to consumer organizations.

Naturally, everyone who has taken part in work on this survey wouldbe glad to receive critical reactions from such sources.

It is impossible to investigate such an important and complex setof themes in a preliminary survey, which must necessarily be regardedas experimental. 'We recognize that it has limitations as well as merits,Any exploration of a particular sphere of social life uncovers theexistence of a deeper layer of attitudes, of less obvious cultural traitscarried over from earlier times and of sets of values that have not beenadequately studied. So far as we can tell, considerations of such kind

can validly be applied to this survey.

A suitable method of taking the work further would be more thoroughresearch at national level, followed by comparison of the results at the

EEC level.

The subject deserves attention. In 1964, the pioneering study by

Jean Meynaud, the book "Les consommateurs et le pouvoir", contained theclosing remarks: ''However one looks at the matter, the consumer problemcannot be considered in isolation from general attitudes to social life.This is a political problem, in every sense of the cerm, constituting anessential aspect of present-day political struggles".

173

ANNEXES

II. TECHNICAL NOTES

1. Readers are reminded that in sample surveys some allowance has

to be made for sampling error. '.With samples of about 1000 respondents,

differences of less than 5% between percentages should not, as a general

rule, be regarded as statistically significant.

2. In all the tables, the "European Community" row or column gives

the mean relating to the overall sample from the nine countries and thismean is weighted according to the total number of inhabitants aged 15 years

or over of each country:

5. All the data in connexion with this survey are in the keepingof Belgian Archives for Social Science» (Van Evenstraat 2A, B-3000 Leuven(Louvain)). They are available to member bodies of the European

Consortium for Political Research (Essex) or of the Inter-University

Consortium for Political .Research (Michigan). They are freely accessible

to investigators who can produce evidence of requiring them for scientific

research.

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